What’s an election and when is it finished?
That’s the felony query on the middle of Watson v. Republican Nationwide Committee, the mail-in poll case the U.S. Splendid Courtroom took up in November 2025. The courtroom will possibly hand down a ruling sooner than the midterm elections in 2026.
Mississippi legislation, very similar to that of 15 different states, permits for mail-in ballots postmarked by means of Election Day to be gained by means of election officers as much as 5 days later, then counted.
However the Republican Nationwide Committee is arguing within the Watson case, which was once introduced towards the state of Mississippi in January 2024, that this process isn’t felony. An election, the argument is going, contains the receipt of ballots; due to this fact, all ballots will have to be in hand on the shut of Election Day – the congressionally established “Tuesday after the first Monday” in November.
President Donald Trump’s March 2025 govt order 14248 in a similar fashion requires ballots to be gained no later than Election Day if they’re to be counted, announcing that doing in a different way “is like allowing persons who arrive 3 days after Election Day, perhaps after a winner has been declared, to vote in person at a former voting precinct, which would be absurd.”
The Splendid Courtroom’s resolution on mail-in ballots may have main penalties for the 47.6 million American citizens who voted by means of mail in 2024, in addition to greater than 900,000 in a foreign country army and civilian citizens coated below the Uniformed and Out of the country Electorate Absentee Vote casting Act. Greater than 28 million of the 47.6 million home mail-in votes and just about 800,000 of the 900,000 votes forged and counted below the uniformed and in a foreign country electorate act have been from states that let for go back of mail-in ballots after Election Day.
As a political scientist and student of migration, I’ve carried out analysis for over two decades on army carrier individuals and civilian U.S. electorate dwelling in a foreign country.
These days, 16 states plus the District of Columbia permit home absentee ballots which can be postmarked by means of Election Day to be counted if they come after Election Day; 29 states prolong that proper to army and civilian citizens dwelling in a foreign country, spotting that world mail regularly delays poll go back.
Consistent with the united statesConstitution, states administer elections. Below the equivalent coverage clause, on the other hand, the government can cross law to forestall inequalities in get entry to to vote casting. This contains facilitating the best to vote of army carrier individuals and civilian U.S. electorate dwelling in a foreign country.
The Splendid Courtroom will make a decision whether or not federal legislation overrides state election management in figuring out whether or not ballots which can be postmarked by means of Election Day however arrive later will also be counted.
A 250-year historical past
The historical past of absentee, or mail-in, ballots in U.S. elections stretches again 2½ centuries.
Squaddies first voted by means of mail right through the American Revolution, when males from the city of Hollis, New Hampshire, wrote their the city leaders asking to have votes counted in native elections.
Pennsylvania handed the primary legislation permitting infantrymen to vote absentee within the Battle of 1812, a proper expanded within the Civil Battle when 19 Union and 7 Accomplice states allowed infantrymen to vote absentee.
Civil warfare infantrymen who have been clear of their house state right through the 1864 Ohio state election voted on tally sheets that have been mailed in envelopes like this one.
Nationwide Postal Museum, Smithsonian Establishment
Absentee vote casting for infantrymen from all states was once codified in federal legislation in 1942. A 1944 modification specified that ballots that have been postmarked by means of Election Day and arrived inside two weeks after Election Day may well be counted.
Some civilians dwelling in a foreign country, together with civilian executive staff and spouses and dependents of army and civilian staff, won absentee poll vote casting rights with the 1955 Federal Vote casting Help Act. All in a foreign country U.S. electorate have been enfranchised with the 1975 Out of the country Electorate Vote casting Act. The 1986 Uniformed and Out of the country Electorate Absentee Vote casting Act consolidated army and civilian vote casting laws. Later regulations addressed digital communications.
Over 1,000 army carrier individuals asked an absentee poll in Mississippi’s 2024 election, along side just about 1,000 civilian in a foreign country citizens. Nationally, greater than 900,000 folks voted in 2024 below the uniformed and in a foreign country electorate act.
Many of those U.S. electorate could be suffering from a poll receipt time limit on Election Day. Their votes, coming from around the globe, are regularly no longer ready to be counted as a result of overdue arrival.
The Respectable Federal Battle Poll, issued in 1944, allowed U.S. defense force individuals stationed out of doors the rustic to vote.
Nationwide Postal Museum, Smithsonian Establishment
Below the magnifying glass in Florida
Out of the country absentee army and civilian ballots got here to common realize in Florida within the 2000 presidential election. That election – and in the end the presidency — targeted on state election legislation being waived by means of canvassing forums below drive from the Republican Birthday party to depend army and civilian absentee ballots gained after Election Day.
The Splendid Courtroom determined in December 2000 to prevent additional counting of mail-in ballots gained after Election Day as a result of tight certification points in time, with the Electoral School assembly simply six days later.
Congress was once involved concerning the unequal remedy of ballots at house and in another country within the 2000 election. To transport towards addressing those issues, Congress handed the Assist The usa Vote Act in 2002, which incorporates measures to facilitate in a foreign country vote casting.
Making sure that everybody will get a vote
Expanding mail-in vote casting has been a query of creating positive everybody who qualifies to vote can achieve this. Oregon was once the primary state, in 1998, to supply mail-in vote casting. Surveys have proven that extra Democrats than Republicans voted by means of mail in 2020. Sending ballots to all citizens reduces that hole.
By means of 2020, 33 states presented “no excuse” home absentee vote casting, with others increasing or facilitating mail-in vote casting right through the COVID-19 pandemic that yr.
The Federal Vote casting Help Program is charged with making it more uncomplicated for in a foreign country citizens to vote. It continues to search out stumbling blocks, together with issues in returning ballots on time. In the meantime, Florida election supervisors in November 2025 asked that Florida officers reinstate a checkbox that was once dropped from Florida absentee ballots in 2021. The checkbox allowed the voter to request an absentee poll for the following election.
Mail-in poll safety
The a couple of ranges of scrutiny come with signature comparability, poll monitoring and consequences for malfeasance from the instant of registration to poll request, to poll receipt. With those layers of safety there have been handiest an estimated 4 fraudulent votes forged for each 10 million mail-in ballots within the 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 U.S. common elections.
Mail-in vote casting in different places
The USA is one in every of 32 nations international that let mail-in vote casting for no less than a few of its electorate. Those come with the UK since 1945 and Germany since 1957.
In Germany’s federal elections in 2025, 37% of all citizens, or 18.5 million electorate, forged a poll by means of mail. German electorate who’re eligible to vote robotically obtain ballots. In the UK’s 2024 election, just below 5%, or just about 1.3 million electorate, implemented for mail-in ballots.
The base line
The Splendid Courtroom case may just reshape the vote casting panorama in america, doubtlessly affecting 47 million folks, together with some 5 million army and civilian citizens dwelling in another country. Watson v. Republican Nationwide Committee may just additionally impact regulations in 29 states. The result of the case has the possible to make vote casting tougher for hundreds of thousands of civilian and army citizens at house and in another country.
