Many states count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. Those grace periods could go away

Election workers Heidi McGettigan, left, Margaret Wohlford, center, and David Jensen, unload a bag of ballots brought in a from a polling precinct to the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters office in Sacramento, Calif., June 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) 2026-03-20T10:29:33Z There will be just one Election Day for this fall’s midterm elections — Nov. 3. But voters in 14 states who cast their votes by mail will be given a grace period ranging from a day later to several weeks in which their ballots can be received and counted. Whether that extra time should be allowed is at the heart of a case that will be argued Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court strikes down those grace periods, it will leave those states — and their voters — scrambling to adjust with only a few months before absentee ballots are sent out for this fall’s midterm elections. The implications could extend well beyond the 14 states that give a grace period for regular ballots, depending on how the court ultimately rules. A total of 29 states allow for the late arrival of military and overseas ballots, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Voting Rights Lab. In a filing with the court, a group of state and big-city election officials cited “the risks of confusion and disenfranchisement” if mail ballot grace periods were ended suddenly in states where voters have counted on them for years. Stuart Holmes, director of elections for the Washington Secretary of State’s office, said 127,000 ballots were received after Election Day in 2024, so voters should expect about that many ballots to be rejected if Mississippi loses the case. Washington has the longest grace period of any state, 21 days after Election Day. If the ruling is that a ballot is invalid even if it’s postmarked by Election Day, “it might as well have never been received,” he said. “There’s no way to resolve that issue,” Holmes said. “There’s no second chance.” ‘Election Day is E lecti

原文链接: AP News