WASHINGTON: The top US court started deliberating on Monday whether mail-in ballots received by authorities after election day can be counted, in a case that could have repercussions for mid-term elections in November.

The case involves a challenge by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to a law in the southern state of Mississippi that allows ballots to be counted if they arrive within five business days after election day.

The ballots must be postmarked by election day.

Fourteen US states allow mail-in ballots to be tallied after the date of the election if they bear a postmark by election day.

Republican President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of mail-in ballots and has falsely claimed that they contributed to his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

A federal judge ruled in favour of Mississippi, but was overturned by an appeals court panel which said ballots must arrive by election day to be counted.

Mississippi’s solicitor general Scott Stewart, arguing before the Supreme Court, said “states have broad power over elections” and have been allowed to count ballots received after election day for over a century”. “Congress has respected it and no one challenged it until now,” Stewart said.

Democrats tend to use mail-in ballots more than Republicans and the practice became more widespread during the Covid pandemic.

The Trump administration has joined the opponents of the Mississippi law and a ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court could affect the ballot-counting rules in other states.

The mail-in ballot counting case is one of a number of voting rights cases being heard by the Supreme Court this term.

The court, which includes three justices nominated by Trump, heard arguments last year over the use of race to draw congressional electoral districts.

The court is likely to deliver its rulings in the cases by the end of June or early July, which would provide enough time for them to be applied to the November congressional elections.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2026