{"id":18721,"date":"2026-06-29T16:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18721"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:02:08","slug":"california-election-officials-lawmakers-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief-after-supreme-court-says-states-can-count-mailed-ballots-after-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18721","title":{"rendered":"California election officials, lawmakers breathe a sigh of relief after Supreme Court says states can count mailed ballots after Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed down a decision in a case about mailed ballots in Mississippi that left California\u2019s election officials breathing a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

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Authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a 5-4 decision on June 29, the nation\u2019s highest court said states that count mailed ballots for a certain time after the election, so long as they were postmarked by Election Day, can continue to do so. In California, ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at a local elections office up to seven days after voting has concluded are counted under present law.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s U.S. Supreme Court decision is a win for voters, for the rule of law and for the future of our democracy,\u201d said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. \u201cBy rejecting efforts to shorten the vote-by-mail return window, the Court protected an important safeguard that helps ensure service members, overseas voters, Californians with disabilities and rural communities are not silenced by mail delays beyond their control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling makes one thing clear: Our elections belong to the people, not to partisan agendas,\u201d Weber said.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, called the ruling a \u201cwin for voters, plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia, like many states, utilizes vote-by-mail to increase participation in our democracy. Today\u2019s ruling helps ensure mailed-in-ballots get counted and people\u2019s voices are heard through the democratic process,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

The ruling stems from a case out of Mississippi, which pitted the state against the Trump administration and the Republican and Libertarian parties and raised the question of whether federal statute sets a single Election Day by which all ballots must be in the possession of election offices to count.<\/p>\n

This means that, moving forward, Mississippi and other states that currently allow mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive at election offices after voting has ended can continue to do so, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. And that spares election officials from having to scramble just months ahead of the November midterms.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision recognizes a basic reality: Mail delays happen,\u201d said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. \u201cWhen people vote by Election Day, their ballots should not be discarded because of those delays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince our nation\u2019s founding, states have been primarily responsible for regulating elections, and we are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has respected that authority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who chairs the upper chamber\u2019s elections committee, said the court got it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople vote in a wide variety of complex circumstances, and our democracy is strongest when we include their voices instead of rejecting them,\u201d Wiener said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

While many of the states that accept late mail-in ballots lean Democratic \u2014 including Illinois, Massachusetts and New York \u2014 some Republican-controlled states, including Alaska and Texas, also allow it.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has sought to end these grace periods, alleging without proof that late-arriving ballots have resulted in widespread election fraud.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, he again alleged, without citing evidence, that there was \u201cbig cheating\u201d taking place in California and accused Democrats of \u201ctrying to steal\u201d elections when gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, both Republicans, started seeing their leads slip away as more ballots were counted in the days following June 2.<\/p>\n

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Democratic voters in California tend to vote later, so later-arriving ballots tend to break for more progressive candidates \u2014 especially this year when voters were waiting to see if a frontrunner in the gubernatorial contest would emerge.<\/p>\n

Although Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra ultimately overtook Hilton in the governor\u2019s race, the Republican candidate remained in the top two spots, enough to advance to the general election.<\/p>\n

Pratt, meanwhile, was bumped out of second place in his race by Democratic L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, whom the Associated Press projected would face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the general election instead of Pratt.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s Democratic lawmakers, in particular, were quick to celebrate the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision is a victory for voting rights and a rejection of Trump\u2019s attacks on mail and absentee voters,\u201d said Sen. Alex Padilla, a previous California secretary of state.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur democracy works best when as many eligible voters participate and when every eligible vote is counted,\u201d he said. \u201cFor decades, Congress and states like California have worked to expand voting rights and access while keeping elections safe and secure \u2014 and that includes states exercising the right to accept eligible voters\u2019 ballots postmarked on or before Election Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we continue to see unprecedented efforts to interfere with elections from the Trump administration, it is a relief to see federal courts make clear that these attacks on mail and absentee voting are clearly illegal and unconstitutional,\u201d Padilla added.<\/p>\n

And Rep. Norma Torres, D-Pomona, said:\u00a0\u201cRepublicans have spent years trying to convince Americans that counting every legal ballot is a problem. It isn\u2019t. Accurate elections take time, and every ballot cast on time deserves to be counted. That\u2019s what democracy looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the hearing in the case, Justice Samuel Alito brought up the appearance of fraud in instances when \u201ca big stash of ballots\u201d that arrive late \u201cradically flipped\u201d an election.<\/p>\n

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, who defended that state\u2019s election law, noted that the Trump administration and plaintiffs in the case hadn\u2019t submitted evidence of fraud resulting from late-arriving mail ballots.<\/p>\n

At the time, the Supreme Court\u2019s liberal justices signaled that they would side with states with post-Election Day mail ballot deadlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who should decide this issue are not the courts, but Congress, the states and Congress,\u201d said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.<\/p>\n

Some state and big-city election officials, meanwhile, told the court in a written filing that forcing states to change their procedures just a few months before the November election risks \u201cconfusion and disenfranchisement,\u201d especially in places that have relaxed deadlines for years.<\/p>\n

Barrett was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices in the majority opinion.<\/p>\n

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In California, ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at a local elections office within a week after voting has ended can still be counted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia election officials, lawmakers breathe a sigh of relief after Supreme Court says states can count mailed ballots after Election Day - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18721\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California election officials, lawmakers breathe a sigh of relief after Supreme Court says states can count mailed ballots after Election Day - 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