5-4 ruling preserves postmark-based counting in Maryland and 17 other states ahead of November midterms, though dissent warns of unresolved election confidence questions
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states may continue counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, so long as they bear an Election Day postmark — a decision that settles the legal question for Maryland heading into November, even as the Court’s dissenters cautioned the majority left significant election integrity concerns unaddressed.
The ruling in Watson v. Republican National Committee was 5-4, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett authoring the majority opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court’s three liberal justices. Maryland was among the states explicitly named in the case as having a grace period at stake.
Barrett held that federal law sets Election Day as the deadline for voters to cast their ballots — not the deadline for ballots to be received. “That occurs so long as election day is the deadline for individuals to vote,” she wrote. “But the election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt.”
Justice Samuel Alito, writing in dissent, pushed back sharply. The majority’s holding, he warned, “spawns a slurry of troubling election-law questions and risks further undermining Americans’ confidence in election integrity.” The dissent reflected concerns voiced at oral argument by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who had questioned whether late-arriving ballot counts — capable of reversing apparent Election Night results days later — erode public trust regardless of their legal validity.
The Republican National Committee brought the case, arguing that a longstanding federal statute setting a single national Election Day preempts state laws extending receipt deadlines beyond it. The Fifth Circuit had agreed. Monday’s ruling reverses that decision.
What It Means for Maryland
Maryland was already among the states operating under a grace period framework, requiring mail-in ballots to be postmarked by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day to count. The State Board of Elections has acknowledged the real-world complications of that system, warning voters on its own website that “putting your ballot in a mailbox on election day does not mean it is postmarked that day” — a reminder that postmark-based counting depends heavily on postal reliability that is not always guaranteed.
Had the Court ruled the other way, Maryland would have faced a difficult administrative choice ahead of November: restructure its mail ballot rules for federal races, or attempt to run parallel counting systems for state and federal contests simultaneously.
That pressure is now gone. Maryland election officials can proceed toward November under existing rules. Whether that settles public confidence in the outcome — particularly if close federal races hinge on ballots arriving days after Election Night — is a separate question the ruling does not resolve.
The Broader Context
The decision arrives as Maryland’s election infrastructure is already drawing scrutiny. The State Board of Elections acknowledged a ballot printing error affecting voters who received primary mail-in ballots before May 14, requiring a statewide replacement mailing. The episode reinforced longstanding concerns among election integrity advocates about the administrative complexity of high-volume mail voting programs — concerns that Monday’s ruling leaves intact even as it resolves the federal preemption question.
For Maryland voters and election officials alike, the practical message is straightforward: the rules for November are set. Whether those rules produce results that the public — and losing candidates — will accept is a question that will not be answered in court.
Sources: NPR, Bloomberg Law, ABC News, CBS News, SCOTUSblog, Maryland State Board of Elections, Stateline
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