WASHINGTON, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Republican National Committee challenge to restrict mail-in voting grace periods, ruling that elections officials may continue to count mail-in ballots that arrive after election day if they were mailed by deadline.
"The Framers recognized the difficulty of crafting election laws 'applicable to every probable change in the situation of the country,'" so they decided that "a discretionary power over elections" needed to be lodged "somewhere," according to the opinion, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative judge appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term.
"The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose," said the ruling, which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's three liberal justices.
The latest ruling from the highest court in the nation means that the Mississippi law and similar measures in other states will remain in effect ahead of November's midterm elections. Major states across the political spectrum, including California, New York, and Texas, are among those with such laws.
Trump swiftly voiced his frustration, calling the ruling a "tremendous loss in the Supreme Court," escalating his pressure on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require all voters to show a valid ID and proof of citizenship, and it would also ban mail-in ballots except in certain cases.
"The House of Representatives has approved this vital Act, THREE TIMES. The United States Senate seems unable to do so," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the top Republican in the upper chamber, recently said that his conference does not have enough votes to bypass the filibuster to pass the act.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the ruling on Monday, saying in a statement on X that the Supreme Court "upheld this bedrock American principle: if you cast your ballot on time, your vote will count."
"As the midterm elections approach, Trump and his allies are working overtime to silence Americans' votes," Schumer said. Enditem
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