Justice Alito Destroys SCOTUS Ruling in Mail-in Ballot Case

The United States Supreme Court ruling Monday on Watson v. Republican National Committee is a significant defeat to anyone who takes “Election Day” and election law seriously.

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, SCOTUS Blog reported. “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.”

Why? The SCOTUS ruled that the “federal election-day statutes do not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days thereafter,” adding that “nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots received by election day.”

States like California which harvest ballots for 30 days after Election Day are thrilled with the decision.

My immediate reaction was why five days after Election Day? Why not 30 days after Election Day? Why not 100 days?

“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,” SCOTUS Blog reported. “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.

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, strongly dissented. Alito argued that allowing post-Election Day receipt effectively postpones the “election” itself, turning Election Day into an “abstraction” and undermining the federal statutes’ purpose of a fixed, uniform election day for finality and public confidence.”

Alito made clear that the Article I of U.S. Constitution says Election Day – not Election Week or Election Month.

President Donald Trump says this SCOTUS decision, “it’s detrimental to honest elections.”

Congress can make the SCOTUS ruling on Election Day a moot point if they see fit to pass the SAVE Act, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, H.R. 22 introduced in 2025 by Rep. Chip Roy [R-TX-21], which amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration in federal elections, among other election integrity requirements. 

The bill enhances election integrity. Democrats are fighting this bill, and they have corrupted Republicans assisting them.

It is not legal in any state for a noncitizen to cast a ballot in an election for federal office, and has been officially since 1996. Penalties include fines, imprisonment, and even deportation.

Today I bought wine at the grocery store. I was asked for my ID. No one mistakes me for under 21 any more. Had I raised a hissy fit and said I can’t get an ID because I am a married woman and can’t figure out how, there would be no wine with dinner tonight.

Today, most restaurants, bars, grocery stores and all restaurant and bars at airports require ID before serving anyone alcohol. Grandma and grandpa even have to whip out their IDs before being served a Manhattan.

Justice Alito continues:

“As noted, the federal election-day statutes provide that elections for federal office must occur on a specified date, ‘the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November.’

“Election day is a specified date, not a span of multiple days. The election-day statutes require that federal elections occur on that date. Under the challenged Mississippi law, however, the collection of ballots continues for five more days, and therefore the ‘election’ is not held until the end of that period. Because federal law requires that the election occur on election day, it preempts Mississippi’s statute.

And perhaps the most relevant issue:

“In sum, 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 majority brushes aside this impressive historical record because respondents have not offered direct evidence that state actors believed that federal law required these often-burdensome procedures and timelines. For all we know, the majority reasons, the States might have insisted on receiving ballots by election day for their own independent reasons.”

For additional context, read our article, How The US Senate Is Failing America Over The SAVE Act.

You can’t travel without photo ID, or buy booze, or check into a hotel, or rent or buy a home, or apply for government benefits (well, maybe in California you can)… you can’t enroll in college without ID, or buy Sudafed, or adopt a pet, or donate blood. You can’t pick up box-office tickets without ID, or buy spray paint, or apply for a hunting license or enter a federal building.

A photo ID is a routine part of modern life for verification. And Election Day is Election Day.