特朗普遏制邮寄投票的努力在国会受挫，最高法院审理相关案件

Trump’s efforts to curb mail-in voting come to the Supreme Court as they falter in Congress

2026-03-22 / CNN

By [Tierney Sneed]

2 hr ago

PUBLISHED Mar 22, 2026, 5:00 AM ET

Supreme Court Donald Trump Congressional news Federal agencies

[See all topics]

Facebook Tweet[Email]Link Threads

Link Copied!

An official ballot collector for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections gives a voter their “I Voted” sticker after depositing their mail-in ballots into a collection box in Cleveland, Ohio on November 6, 2022.

Dustin Franz/AFP/Getty Images

A Supreme Court case examining state deadlines for election ballots sent in the mail is just the tip of the spear in President Donald Trump’s war on mail-in voting.

Trump has never let go of his unfounded beliefs that voting by mail is rife with fraud, as he has called on Congress, the judiciary and state legislators to cut back on the practice. At his insistence, US Senate Republicans have devoted several days to debating an election overhaul bill that Trump wants to end most mail-in voting. But it is expected to die in Congress due to a Democratic filibuster.

Where Trump has seen some success on the issue is what the Supreme Court will scrutinize on Monday: the practice by some states of counting mail ballots that arrive at election offices after Election Day.

Ad Feedback

His Justice Department convinced at least one state to eliminate its mail ballot grace period by threatening a lawsuit, and other GOP-led states changed their deadlines proactively. On Monday, Trump’s top Supreme Court lawyer will argue in support of a challenge to Mississippi’s mail ballot deadline that was brought by the Republican National Committee.

The mail voting deadlines of more than a dozen states – including states like California, Texas and Alaska that will be pivotal in determining which party controls Congress – are now in jeopardy as the Supreme Court examines whether those policies run afoul of federal law.

Employees direct traffic to where voters can drop off their mail-in ballots in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2024.

Rebecca Droke/AFP/Getty Images

The dispute is the latest example of Trump’s push to put the federal government’s heavy hands in the machinery of election administration – a task the Constitution largely delegates to the states. The president has suggested that he [has the power] to implement voter ID requirements on his own that are part of the election overhaul bill. [He also demanded] that GOP lawmakers add to that legislation a ban on no-excuse absentee voting.

A loss in the Supreme Court could further enrage a president who recently [fumed] at the justices for not overturning his 2020 electoral defeat. A decision would likely come before the end of June.

The legal challenge centers on statutes passed by Congress in the 19th and early 20th centuries that standardized federal elections for the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Republicans argue those statutes preclude states from setting post-Election Day ballot receipt deadlines.

“Election-day receipt promotes election integrity and voter confidence as much today as it did when Congress passed that law,” the Trump [administration told]the Supreme Court in a legal brief.

Trump’s opponents counter that the federal Election Day statutes don’t go that far, and that states have flexibility in whether to embrace mail-in ballots and how to regulate them. They argue that if the Supreme Court were to accept the GOP’s logic, it would make it impermissible for states to offer mail-in voting or even early in-person voting.

“What Donald Trump wants, and has said that he wants, is Election Day voting only, in-person, only,” Marc Elias, a lawyer for voter groups that are defending the state laws, told reporters Monday. “So doing away with vote-by-mail is like the most convenient way for them to start, but it will not be where they end.”

DOJ sent Ohio a draft lawsuit on voting deadlines

Ohio voters walk to drop off their ballots at the Board of Elections in Dayton, Ohio on April 28, 2020.

Megan Jelinger/AFP/Getty Images

An [executive order] Trump signed a year ago was his first attempt to rein in voting by mail, using multiple federal levers to pressure states to drop post-election grace periods for mail-in ballots. It instructed the withholding of federal election funding from those states, while also commanding the attorney general to “take all necessary action to enforce” the federal Election Day statutes.

A top attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division suggested in court last April that the executive order could lead to criminal actions against states that refuse to move up their mail ballot deadlines.

Such criminal actions never materialized. But the attorney, Michael Gates, who has since left the department, used the threat of a civil lawsuit against at least one state to force it to change its law.

In early September, Gates [emailed Ohio state officials a draft lawsuit] that argued the federal Election Day statute prohibited the state’s acceptance of mail-in ballots up to four days after the election. He also offered a proposed legal agreement – known as a consent decree – that would have avoided litigation by having Ohio agree to have its deadline changed by court order instead.

According to communications obtained by CNN via a public records request, the state officials convinced Gates that [Ohio lawmakers would be amenable] to passing a bill to change the deadline instead, so that court action would not be necessary. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, both Republicans, [advocated in favor of the bill] last year by pointing to the threat of litigation.

Yet when GOP Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill, he said he was doing so “reluctantly,” according to the [Statehouse News Bureau].

Another three states – Kansas, North Dakota and Utah – eliminated their grace periods in the past year. North Dakota’s deputy secretary of state, Sandy McMerty, told CNN that the state was responding to the Trump executive order and to the legal fight now at the Supreme Court.

Courts have since blocked much of executive order and the bulk of its provisions seeking to pressure states on their mail ballot deadlines.

Supreme Court asked to change rules nationwide

The Supreme Court could hand Trump the win he was not able to achieve through unliteral action, though legal experts are skeptical of the Republican arguments for why the state policies are unlawful.

A ruling from a conservative appeals court in New Orleans that sided with the GOP was likely the reason that Supreme Court felt the need to take up the case, according to Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The case started as a 2024 Republican National Committee lawsuit against Mississippi’s law giving mail ballots five days to arrive after Election Day. Mississippi severely limits who can vote absentee, [so the RNC’s choice to challenge the policy] there was seen as a strategic move to get the case before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thirteen other states, as well as the District of Columbia, have post-Election Day mail ballot receipt deadlines, and 15 more have extended deadlines for certain ballots submitted by military families on deployment and US citizens overseas, [according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.]

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court not to eliminate the grace periods for military ballots.

The 5th Circuit majority embraced the arguments by Republicans that Congress – when it set a federal Election Day – meant for that day to be the final day for ballots to be received by election officials. But other judges who looked at the question have disagreed, saying that the laws’ text includes no such receipt-deadline for mail-in ballots and only require that individual voters make their choice by Election Day.

The Justice Department, under President Joe Biden, initially supported Mississippi. But once the case reached the Supreme Court, and after Trump had returned to the White House, the Justice Department not only switched sides, but also sought the opportunity to make oral arguments at Monday’s hearing.

It was once rare for the Justice Department to insert itself in a case it was not a party to when the justices hadn’t asked for its input. But Trump’s solicitor general, John Sauer, has been piping in on high-profile cases [on a more frequent basis.]Still, Sauer’s decision to argue the ballot deadline case on Monday, rather than assign it to one of his deputies, shows its significance to the administration.

Several Republican state attorneys general, GOP members of Congress and conservative election integrity groups have also lined up behind the Republicans’ arguments. By contrast, Trump’s demand that Congress add a national ban on no-excuse absentee voting to legislation focused on voter ID and citizenship verification prompted debate among Senate Republicans, many of whom who represent states with expansive mail-in voting policies.

Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Election Project, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the RNC, said that requiring Election Day mail-in ballot deadlines is a “[very popular] position with the voters,” and “a best practice as far as election administration is concerned.”

“I think everybody understands that the ballot is really considered a vote when it’s received by an election official,” Snead told CNN. “That’s a bright line rule, and that brings clarity to the process.”

Despite the momentum Trump has seen in his broadsides against mail-in ballot grace periods, Hasen predicted a unanimous or near-unanimous ruling from Supreme Court upholding the state policies, which in turn will provoke a “ballistic” response from Trump.

“The backup position is always, if the courts or Congress can’t make these changes, the election is full of fraud,” Hasen told CNN, adding that if Democrats win in November’s midterms, it’s “a convenient backup.”

CNN’s Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

Supreme Court Donald Trump Congressional news Federal agencies

[See all topics]

Facebook Tweet[Email]Link Threads

Link Copied!

Ad Feedback

Subscribe

Sign in

My Account

• [Settings]
• [Newsletters]
• [Topics you follow]
• [Sign out]

Your CNN account Sign in to your CNN account

[]

*

[Listen][Watch]

*

• [US]
• [Crime & Justice]
• [Immigration]
• [Education]
• [Transportation]
• [Race & Identity]

• [World]
• [Africa]
• [Americas]
• [Asia]
• [Australia]
• [China]
• [Europe]
• [India]
• [Middle East]
• [United Kingdom]

• [Politics]
• [Trump]
• [Facts First]
• [CNN Polls]
• [2026 Elections]
• [Redistricting Tracker]
• [Epstein Files]

• [Business]
• [Tech]
• [Media]
• [Calculators]
• [Videos]

• [Markets]
• [Pre-markets]
• [After-Hours]
• [Fear & Greed]
• [Investing]
• [Markets Now]
• [Nightcap]

• [Health]
• [Life, But Better]
• [Fitness]
• [Food]
• [Sleep]
• [Mindfulness]
• [Relationships]

• [CNN Underscored]
• [Electronics]
• [Fashion]
• [Beauty]
• [Health & Fitness]
• [Home]
• [Reviews]
• [Deals]
• [Gifts]
• [Travel]
• [Outdoors]
• [Pets]

• [Entertainment]
• [Movies]
• [Television]
• [Celebrity]

• [Tech]
• [Innovate]

• [Style]
• [Arts]
• [Design]
• [Fashion]
• [Architecture]
• [Luxury]
• [Beauty]
• [Video]

• [Travel]
• [Destinations]
• [Food & Drink]
• [Stay]
• [News]
• [Videos]

• [Sports]
• [Pro Football]
• [College Football]
• [Basketball]
• [Baseball]
• [Soccer]
• [Olympics]

• [Science]
• [Space]
• [Life]
• [Unearthed]

• [Climate]
• [Solutions]
• [Weather]

• [Weather]
• [Video]
• [Climate]

• [Ukraine-Russia War]

• [Israel-Hamas War]

• [Watch]
• [Featured]
• [Shows & Films]
• [Network TV]
• [Clips]
• [CNN Headlines]
• [CNN Shorts]
• [Shows A-Z]
• [CNN 10]
• [CNN TV Schedules]

• [Listen]
• [CNN 5 Things]
• [Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta]
• [The Assignment with Audie Cornish]
• [One Thing]
• [Tug of War]
• [CNN Political Briefing]
• [The Axe Files]
• [All There Is with Anderson Cooper]
• [All CNN Audio podcasts]

• [Games]
• [Daily Crossword]
• [Jumble Crossword]
• [Photo Shuffle]
• [Sudoblock]
• [Sudoku]
• [5 Things Quiz]

• [Amazon Prime Day]

• [About CNN]
• [Subscribe]
• [Photos]
• [Investigations]
• [CNN Profiles]
• [CNN Leadership]
• [CNN Newsletters]
• [Work for CNN]

*

[]

[Watch][Listen]

*

Subscribe

Sign in

My Account

• [Settings]
• [Newsletters]
• [Topics you follow]
• [Sign out]

Your CNN account Sign in to your CNN account

[]

Follow CNN Politics

• []
• []
• []
• []

*

Download the CNN app

[]

Download the CNN app

[]

*

[Terms of Use][Privacy Policy][Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Information][Ad Choices][Accessibility & CC][About][Subscribe][Newsletters][Transcripts][Help Center]
© 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.

CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.

Download the CNN app

Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play.

Download the CNN app

Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.

Legal Terms and Privacy

By clicking Agree, you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and agree to the collection and use of your information by cookies and similar technologies, as set forth in our Privacy Policy.
By clicking “Agree”, you have read and agree to the [Terms of Use] and agree to the collection and use of your information by cookies and similar technologies, as set forth in our [Privacy Policy].

[Agree]

Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal detected. Your personal information will not be sold or shared.

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Data

For residents of certain states only. Please visit our [U.S. State Supplement] for more information.

[Privacy Policy]

Manage Consent Preferences

Allow the Sale, Sharing or use of My Personal information for Targeted Advertising

• [x] Allow the Sale, Sharing or use of My Personal information for Targeted Advertising

If you switch this toggle to “no,” we will not sell or share your personal information with third parties for advertising targeted to this device.

Please see our [Privacy Center] for additional preferences.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Always Active

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work.

Cookie List

Clear

• – [x] checkbox label label

Apply Cancel

Consent Leg.Interest

• [x] checkbox label label

• [x] checkbox label label

• [x] checkbox label label

Confirm My Choices