Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
The Supreme Court rejects the RNC’s bid to throw out mail ballots that arrive after Election Day, 5-4
In Watson v. Republican National Committee, the Court held that federal Election Day statutes do not bar states from counting mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received afterward.
What happened
On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court held 5-4 that federal Election Day statutes do not bar states from counting mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received afterward. Justice Barrett, joined by Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson, wrote that “the election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose.”
The RNC and Mississippi Republicans had sued in 2024 and won in the Fifth Circuit, backed at the Supreme Court by the Justice Department. The ruling went against all of them. The Court read the statutes by their text and declined to add a receipt deadline Congress had not written.
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have grace periods, and Votebeat counted more than 745,000 such ballots in 2024 in 11 of them. RNC chair Joe Gruters said, “the RNC will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day.”
Who benefited
Voters in the 14 states and the District of Columbia with grace periods keep their late-arriving ballots counted. More than 745,000 such ballots were counted in 2024 in 11 of those states, and the states keep their own receipt rules.
Who wanted something
The RNC and Mississippi Republicans wanted ballots received after Election Day thrown out, and the Justice Department backed them at the Court. They had won in the Fifth Circuit before the Supreme Court took the case.
Who lost out
The RNC, Mississippi Republicans and the Justice Department lost a case they had won in the Fifth Circuit, by a single vote. Gruters said the RNC will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day, so the grace-period question is not settled politically.
Why it matters
A single vote decided whether ballots like the more than 745,000 counted in 2024 in 11 states could be thrown out. Barrett’s majority held that the statutes say nothing about receipt. The RNC says it will keep fighting.
Sources Supreme Court of the United States (slip opinion) (primary)VotebeatThe HillCNBC