Watson v. Republican National Committee, Opinion - SCOTUS
SCOTUSblog
Holding
The federal Election-Day statutes do not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days thereafter; nothing in the federal Election-Day statutes requires ballots to be received by Election Day.
Judgment
Reversed and remanded, 5-4, in an opinion by Amy Coney Barrett on Jun 29, 2026. Justice Alito wrote a dissenting opinion, which was joined in full by Justices Thomas and Gorsuch and by Justice Kavanaugh as to all but Parts II–C–2 and III.
Just over four months before the 2026 midterm elections, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by, and received within five days of, Election Day. By a vote of 5-4, the justices in Watson v. Republican National Committee rejected an argument, made by the political parties and others challenging the law, that federal law requires mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett concluded that “the election-day statutes require the electorate’s choice to be made on election day. That occurs so long as election day is the deadline for individuals to vote—as it is in Mississippi. But the election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt, so they do not prevent Mississippi from counting ballots postmarked before election day yet received afterward.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Barrett’s opinion for the court.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito argued that “from this Nation’s founding until the last few decades of the 20th century—a period that spans the enactment of all three election-day statutes—having an ‘election’ on a particular day meant completing ballot collection on that day.”
The Supreme Court will kick off its March argument session by hearing a case that could have major implications for the 2026 elections and beyond. In Watson v. Republican National Committee, the justices will decide whether federal law requires not only that voters cast their ballots by Election Day, but also that election officials receive the ballots by then. If the justices agree that it does, laws in more than a dozen states could be upended.
The Constitution provides that “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.” In 1845, Congress – which has the power to determine when the president is elected – chose the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as “election day,” and in 1872 it directed that congressional elections should occur on this day, as well.
In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mississippi changed its election laws to allow mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they were postmarked by, and then received within five business days of, Election Day.