WASHINGTON, D.C. — Elias Law Group and the Mississippi Center for Justice today filed a reply brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in Watson v. Republican National Committee, defending Mississippi’s law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted if received within five business days after. The filing comes less than two weeks before the Court hears oral argument on March 23 in a case that could determine whether hundreds of thousands of voters nationwide, including many military and overseas voters, will have their ballots counted in this year’s midterm elections.
In addition to Mississippi, thirteen other states and Washington, D.C., allow mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if received shortly after, and a majority of states offer similar mailing deadlines for military voters. All these laws could be at risk if the Supreme Court sides with the Republican National Committee’s interpretation of federal election law. In recent election cycles, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots cast by eligible voters before Election Day would have been rejected in elections in states across the country if not for laws like these.
The reply brief, filed today on behalf of intervenor-defendants Vet Voice Foundation and the Mississippi Alliance for Retired Americans, responds to arguments from the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, and the Trump Department of Justice, which filed an amicus brief in support of the RNC’s position. The reply brief demonstrates that federal law sets a deadline for when voting must occur, but not for when ballots must be received. It also shows how a ruling in favor of the RNC could destabilize our elections by invalidating other state election laws and creating conflict with federal laws like the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which protects the voting rights of servicemembers and their families.
Following is an excerpt from the reply brief filed today:
“Congress did not secretly preempt laws like Mississippi’s more than a century ago. Nothing in the text of the Election Day Statutes addresses when ballots must be received, only when the election must be held. […] The Election Day Statutes and laws like Mississippi’s have coexisted since at least 1918. That is not because everyone missed a blaring federal deadline. It is because the Election Day Statutes require only that federal elections be held on a particular day, as Mississippi does.”
Oral argument in Watson v. Republican National Committee is scheduled for March 23, 2026. A decision is expected later this year.
To learn more about this case, click here.
To read the full reply brief, click here.
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