The Supreme Court has ruled that federal election-day statutes do not prevent states from counting absentee ballots that are cast and postmarked by Election Day but arrive shortly afterward. The decision, reversing the Fifth Circuit and remanding the case, is a significant win for military and overseas voters, and Maher Legal Services is proud to have played a part in it.
What the Case Was About
At issue was a Mississippi law that permits absentee ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received by election officials within several days afterward. Several political organizations challenged that law, arguing that federal statutes setting a single national Election Day require every ballot to be received by that date. The Fifth Circuit agreed, adopting a rigid receipt-by-Election-Day rule.
That interpretation carried consequences far beyond Mississippi. Ballots cast by service members stationed overseas, and by other voters covered by federal military and overseas voting protections, often cannot physically return to the United States by Election Day, even when cast well in advance and in full compliance with the law. A rigid receipt deadline would have placed the risk of mail delay, the kind of delay a deployed service member has no ability to control, squarely on the voter least able to prevent it.
The Firm’s Role
Maher Legal Services filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the National Defense Committee, a veteran-serving advocacy organization, in support of the Mississippi Secretary of State’s position. The brief’s historical and statutory argument, tracing military voting rights from the Civil War through the modern era, drew on the expertise of Samuel F. Wright, the firm’s Of Counsel and a principal drafter of USERRA, whose decades of work on service members’ voting and employment protections shaped the case that rigid, receipt-based election deadlines have repeatedly operated to disenfranchise service members stationed far from home. The brief argued that the federal election-day statutes set a uniform national voting day, not a ballot-receipt deadline, and that this reading is reinforced by Congress’s later enactment of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which was written specifically to prevent that kind of disenfranchisement.
Why This Matters
The Supreme Court’s decision preserves the ability of states to count ballots that are timely cast by military and overseas voters but received after Election Day due to the mail delays inherent in service abroad. For the service members, reservists, and overseas voters this case was ultimately about, it means a ballot cast on time will not be discarded simply because it could not outrun the postal system home.
Maher Legal Services has long been involved in advocacy on behalf of the voting rights of deployed service members, and this outcome reflects the kind of institutional, historically grounded advocacy the firm brings to matters affecting the men and women who serve.
How a Case Like This Moves Through the Supreme Court
Supreme Court cases follow a set path, and this one is a good example of how long that path can take.
- June 10, 2025 — The case reaches the Supreme Court. After losing at the Fifth Circuit, Mississippi’s Secretary of State asked the Supreme Court to take up the case.
- November 10, 2025 — The Court agrees to hear it. Of the thousands of cases people ask the Supreme Court to review each year, it accepts only a small fraction. This step, known as granting certiorari, means the Court decided the issue was important enough to resolve nationally.
- January 9, 2026 — Outside groups weigh in. Once a case is accepted, organizations with a stake in the outcome, but who are not parties to the lawsuit, can file “friend of the court” briefs explaining why the issue matters and how they think it should be decided. This is when Maher Legal Services filed its brief on behalf of the National Defense Committee.
- March 23, 2026 — The lawyers argue the case in person. Attorneys for each side appeared before the Justices in Washington to answer questions and make their case directly.
- June 29, 2026 — The Court issues its decision. The Justices ruled in favor of Mississippi’s approach, overturning the Fifth Circuit’s decision and sending the case back for further proceedings consistent with that ruling.
About Samuel F. Wright
Samuel F. Wright is Of Counsel for Maher Legal Services. A retired Navy Captain and Judge Advocate with nearly five decades of experience in military and employment law, he is widely recognized as a principal drafter of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and has served in senior legal roles at the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense, the Office of Special Counsel, and FEMA, as well as Director of the Service Members Law Center for the Reserve Officers Association. He holds a J.D. from the University of Houston and an LL.M. from Georgetown University.
Schedule a Consultation
If you are a service member, reservist, or overseas voter with questions about how this decision affects your rights, or if you are facing a related matter involving military voting rights, we welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
