President Trump signs order asserting federal control over mail-in voting
President Donald Trump has moved to assert federal control over mail-in voting with an executive order.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said June 29 that Mississippi can count late-arriving mail-in ballots, handing President Donald Trump a defeat in his efforts to curtail mail-in voting.
The court upheld a state law that allows ballots cast by Election Day to be counted if they are received within five days.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in defending the law.
Barrett told the 5-4 majority that federal law does not set a deadline for receiving ballots because Mississippi’s law does not conflict with federal rules.
“The question today is not whether requiring ballots to be received by Election Day is a good or bad idea. The question is whether this idea has been incorporated into U.S. law,” she wrote.
More than a dozen states have similar laws. Additional states allow late voting by military and overseas voters. Voting by mail is down compared to its peak during the coronavirus pandemic. However, nearly 30% of voters still voted that way in the 2024 election.
Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans.
President Trump targets mail-in voting
Supporters of voting by mail say it makes it easier for people, including retirees, military personnel and rural residents, to vote. The grace period also prevents people from losing their votes due to postal service delays.
But President Trump has long railed against mail-in voting, saying it is vulnerable to fraud, and has claimed without evidence that mail-in voting cost the 2020 election.
President Trump has separately attempted to completely eliminate both grace periods and mail-in voting by executive order and by pressuring Congress to pass legislation.
The Department of Justice also supported challenges to the Mississippi law by both Republicans and liberals.
What is an election?
Federal law sets specific dates for U.S. elections, so the legal debate focused on defining when elections take place.
Republicans and the Trump administration have said ballots must be received by Election Day.
Mississippi said ballots mailed by Election Day can be received after Election Day because elections are when voters choose candidates.
What is the risk of fraud?
Documented cases of fraud related to mail-in voting are rare, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data and Science Institute. A 2025 report from the Brookings Institution estimates that there will be about four incidents of fraud for every 10 million mail-in ballots.
But critics argue that if votes counted after Election Day affect the outcome of a race, it could raise questions about the legitimacy of the election even if there was no fraud.
“The losers are not going to accept the outcome if it means turning on late-arriving ballots in such a way that the outcome that everyone expected on Election Day is the opposite one week later, 21 days later,” Republican lawyer Paul Clement told the Supreme Court. “And that’s bad for our system.”
This is not the only election-related incident.
Watson v. Republican National Committee is not the only election-related issue the justices have considered this term.
In a landmark ruling, the court watered down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, leaving Republican-led states scrambling to draw new congressional maps that favor Republicans.
The justices are also deciding whether to overturn limits on coordinated spending between political parties and candidates, another change sought by Republicans.
