The Supreme Court appeared ready during oral arguments Monday to restrict state laws allowing the counting of late-arriving ballots, in a challenge to Mississippi’s state law on absentee ballots.
Mississippi allows state officials to count mail ballots that were postmarked on or before Election Day but arrive up to five business days late, and more than half of states count late-arriving votes in at least some circumstances.
The state in the arguments asked the justices to overturn a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which ruled that the state law violates a federal law that sets Election Day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
