Banning mail ballot grace periods would create chaotic 'dual voting system,' former election chiefs warn SCOTUS

Former election chiefs warned the U.S. Supreme Court that ending mail ballot grace periods would create a confusing and chaotic election system that risks disenfranchising voters and undermining confidence just months before the 2026 midterms.

In a brief filed Friday, a group of former state election directors from across the country noted that if SCOTUS upholds a lower court ruling requiring mail ballots to arrive by Election Day, its decision would apply only to federal races. As a result, it would force election administrators to adopt different rules for federal and nonfederal races, greatly complicating the counting process and fracturing election systems that are designed to operate as a unified whole.

The brief — which includes former election directors from California, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas — was submitted in a high-stakes case challenging a Mississippi law that allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted, if they arrive within five business days. Republicans argue that federal law requires ballots to be both cast and counted on Election Day for federal races. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, setting the stage for Supreme Court review.

“Unless impacted states revise their ballot-receipt deadlines to align with the Fifth Circuit’s decision, their election officials would be required to apply different rules to different elections — or even to different races in the same election — a result Congress neither intended nor pursued,” the former election chiefs wrote.


https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/banning-mail-ballot-grace-periods-would-create-chaotic-dual-voting-system/