A Mississippi law that allows ballots received up to five days after an election to be counted is lawful, a federal judge ruled on July 28.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. pointed in part to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which governs ballots from citizens residing overseas.
The ruling dismissed cases brought against Mississippi officials by the Republican National Committee, the Mississippi Republican Party, and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi.
The Mississippi law requires officials to count absentee ballots postmarked on or before Election Day, provided the ballots are received no more than five business days after the election.
The U.S. Constitution’s elections and electors clause gives Congress the power to set Election Day for determining electors for president and vice president, as well as the date for voters choosing members of Congress. Congress later established a single day for the selection of electors and votes for members.
The Mississippi law “contravenes those federal laws” because it “effectively extends Mississippi’s federal election past the Election Day established by Congress,” Republicans said in their complaint.
They argued the law was forcing them to spend money to educate voters on the post-Election Day receipt deadline and urged the court to declare the law illegal and block its enforcement.
Mississippi officials said the law does not directly conflict with federal statutes because those statutes do not address whether ballots must be received on or by Election Day.
While Republicans and the Libertarian Party did establish standing, or that they are being harmed by the law, they did not show that the law is illegal or unconstitutional, Judge Guirola said.
He cited previous rulings from courts, including a 2023 district court ruling that upheld an Illinois law that lets ballots postmarked on or before Election Day be counted if received up to 14 days after Election Day. In that ruling, the judge referenced the UOCAVA and noted that the attorney general of the United States “often seeks court-ordered extensions of ballot receipt deadlines to ensure that military voters are not disenfranchised.”
“These longstanding efforts by Congress and the executive branch to ensure that ballots cast by Americans living overseas are counted, so long as they are cast by Election Day, strongly suggest that statutes like the one at issue here are compatible with the Elections Clause,” Judge Guirola said.
“In the absence of federal law regulating absentee mail-in ballot procedures, states retain the authority and the constitutional charge to establish their lawful time, place, and manner boundaries.”
Since the Mississippi law is legal, there are no violations of plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, he added.
