Trump laments Supreme Court mail-in ballot loss, pushes voter-ID bill

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Mississippi can continue counting some ballots received after Election Day, rejecting a challenge from Republicans who argued those ballots were invalid under federal law.

5-4 opinionsThe letter, written by one of President Donald Trump’s appointees and joined by the court’s three liberals, deals a blow to ongoing efforts by Trump and the GOP to reduce mail-in voting ahead of the midterms.

“Mississippi is one of approximately 30 states that count at least some ballots mailed on Election Day but received later,” the majority said in the resolution.

Trump lamented legal defeat Real Social post This prompted Republicans to pass a controversial election bill, which they aggressively pushed.

“In light of the tremendous loss of Voting Rights at the Supreme Court today and the fact that ‘the people’s’ votes were allowed to be counted LONG AFTER the Election was over, it is more important than ever to pass the SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump said. he wrote.

Speaking at the White House later Monday, Trump called the Supreme Court’s decision “a little surprising” and claimed it “gave people more time to vote illegally.”

“I think it’s very detrimental to honest elections, but that’s the way it is,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump regularly, and without providing any evidence, amplified claims that the US election was overturned by large-scale voter fraud.

Mississippi’s election law allows absentee voters, including seniors and college students, to cast their ballots by mail as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day and arrive no more than five days after Election Day.

The Republican National Committee filed the lawsuit in 2024, arguing that language in the federal election statutes showed that the last date ballots could be received was Election Day.

But the Supreme Court disagreed.

“Federal election day legislation does not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but are not received until five days after Election Day,” the court said. “Nothing in the federal election day statute requires ballots to be delivered by election day.”

The result came as a surprise to those who believed the court was undecided on the issue. ready to topple over Mississippi law.

“The importance of this case cannot be overstated,” said Elisabeth Frost, chief litigation officer at Elias Law Group, which represents Mississippi in the case.

Frost said in a statement that the Supreme Court “upheld a simple principle: a lawful vote cast on time should be counted.” “He rejected the RNC’s radical attempt to rewrite election laws in a way that would result in hundreds of thousands of ballots being rejected and voters across the country being disenfranchised through no fault of their own.”

The decision comes after Trump, facing the prospect of Democrats gaining a majority in one or both houses of Congress after the November midterm elections, made changing election rules a top priority for Republican lawmakers.

It demands that Congress pass the SAVE America Act, a controversial bill that is currently federally illegal and aims to prevent noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections. occurs rarely. The bill would impose nationwide rules limiting mail-in voting and requiring proof of citizenship for voters, among other provisions.

Last week, Trump abruptly canceled the signing of the landmark bipartisan housing bill and said he would refuse to sign it into law “until we pass the much-needed SAVE AMERICA ACT.”

At the White House on Monday afternoon, Trump repeated his view that Senate Majority Leader R.S.D. should fire the Senate parliamentarian and clear the way for the GOP to pass the election bill as part of the budget reconciliation package.

The maneuver could bypass the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule and allow Republicans to approve the bill without needing help from Democrats. But the budget reconciliation process involves a number of limitations and restrictions, and it is not yet clear whether any version of the election bill will pass intact.

Thune has already said he won’t fire Rep. Elizabeth MacDonough despite pressure from Trump. Thune also rejected Trump’s calls to change legal filibuster rules.

Moreover, a handful of Senate Republicans have already signaled their opposition to the RELIEVE America Act; This, too, Trump seems to recognize could present an insurmountable obstacle.

“I would like to see the Save America Act added, [but] That probably won’t happen because we have four, maybe five Republican senators who won’t vote for it,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

The Trump administration had filed a court brief supporting the RNC’s lawsuit against Mississippi, and U.S. Attorney General D. John Sauer represented the federal government at oral arguments before the justices in March.

In Monday’s ruling, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump nominated to the bench in 2020, flatly rejected arguments that federal election laws supersede Mississippi’s law allowing late-arriving absentee ballots.

“We must decide whether federal election day laws prevail over Mississippi laws,” he wrote for the majority. “They don’t.”

The opinion overturned an earlier decision by the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals, which held that Mississippi’s adoption of late voting violated federal law.

Barrett was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that by counting late-arriving ballots, Mississippi “effectively postponed the date on which electors were to be selected, and federal law preempted that delay.”

Alito’s dissent was approved by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, and was joined in part by Brett Kavanaugh.