Will a longstanding Washington voter protection disappear? Election officials are closely watching a Supreme Court case over mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day

OLYMPIA – A case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court could disrupt how ballots in Washington and more than a dozen other states across the country are counted in elections.

Members of the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday morning in a case challenging Mississippi election law. Following the hearing where members of the court’s conservative majority appeared hesitant to allow states to accept mail-in ballots that arrive after election day, election officials cautioned that it’s too early to say what impact the case could have in Washington.

While a ruling is not expected until June or July, Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said the case could leave the election officials with little time to adjust procedures before the August primary while remaining compliant with state election laws.

“Right now, there’s so much uncertainty. And uncertainty is not a good environment; it’s not the appropriate environment for elections to be conducted, to be administered,” Dalton said in an interview Monday. “Election administration is about process; it’s not about politics, it’s not about campaigns. It’s about the process of maintaining lists, providing the opportunity to vote, and then counting those votes.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic threatened traditional electoral procedure throughout the country, Mississippi passed legislation that allowed ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted as long as they are received within five business days of the election.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 13 states allow ballots postmarked on Election Day to be counted post-election, with other states considering similar legislation, though the grace period varies from state to state. Oregon allows ballots to be counted up to seven days after Election Day, while Alaska allows ballots received 10 days after the election to be counted, according to the NCSL.

Currently, ballots in Washington can be received and counted up to a day before the election certification. In Idaho, ballots must be received by Election Day to be counted.

The change in Mississippi prompted a lawsuit by the state and national Republican parties, who argued the law violates federal law passed in 1845 that establishes the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as Election Day.

“If they decide against the law, is it going to be a narrow interpretation or a narrow order, or are they going to broaden it out?” Dalton said Monday.

Should the court rule block states from accepting ballots that are delivered after Election Day, Dalton said that transit time would “become more of a factor than it is now for us.”

While ballots would continue to be accepted through 8 p.m. on Election Day at designated ballot drop boxes, more than a third of voters across the state have returned their ballots via mail in each of the past five general elections, with an even higher percentage of Spokane County residents using vote-by-mail, according to data from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Stefanie Randolph, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, said Monday his office is “watching this case closely.”

Last year, 47.6% of ballots returned in the general election in Spokane County were returned via mail, according to data from the Secretary of State’s Office.

More than 311,000 of the 2 million ballots that were returned in Washington for the 2025 general election arrived on Nov. 5, the Wednesday after Election Day, according to data from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Of the nearly 150,000 ballots cast in Spokane County last year, 21,074 arrived the day after Election Day.

“If the Supreme Court decision does enforce a total ban on ballots received after Election Day, we would increase existing efforts to ensure voters understand their options,” Randolph said.

Last year, both Hobbs and Dalton encouraged voters who wished to return their ballots via mail to do so days before the election, as cost-cutting at the United States Postal Service meant it was no longer guaranteed ballots would be postmarked on the same day they were received. Randolph again encouraged voters to utilize either a drop box or a voting center to return their ballot.

“We are fortunate to have an 18-day voting period and several convenient ballot return options available to voters,” Randolph said. “We recommend taking full advantage of the 18-day voting period, vote early, and sign up for ballot status text notifications at votewa.gov.”

Dalton said that military members and those overseas would be “incredibly hard hit” if the court were to decide that ballots must be received by election day in order to be counted.

“These are people in military service who sometimes are in remote situations,” Dalton said. “And so for them to return a physical ballot back to us by Election Day, I mean, that’s completely out of their hands.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly sought to require that ballots be received by Election Day in order to be counted, and filed a Supreme Court brief supporting the challenge to the Mississippi law.

In April, Washington and Oregon filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that challenged an executive order that would require voters to provide evidence of citizenship when registering to vote and require that all mail ballots be received by Election Day to be counted.

Enforcement of the executive order is currently on hold following a federal court ruling in Massachusetts.

At a news conference announcing the lawsuit last year, Hobbs said Washington’s entirely mail-in voting system has built-in safeguards to prevent fraudulent votes from being cast, including a collection of statewide databases with up-to-date voter registration that helps determine if someone attempts to vote in multiple states.

While voting by mail has long been an option in Washington, the state Legislature required all counties to use a vote-by-mail system starting in 2011, which Attorney General Nick Brown said at the time “led to us having one of the highest rates of voting in the nation.”

If the court blocks states from counting ballots received after Election Day, Dalton said it’s unclear whether the ruling would apply to both federal and local elections.

“The August primary will have congressional members on it, so technically that might be a federal election,” Dalton said. “That election is in early August. We prep for that thing starting at the end of May. So clearly, we would be having to change, not later in the fall, we could be changing immediately and trying to figure out how to manage an election.”