As he left the US Supreme Courtroom, where the justices had just heard Arguments Monday on whether to ban states from doing so Counting postal ballots That arrived after Election Day, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar sent a text message to his staff 3,000 miles away.
His guidance: Be prepared to plan how to conduct the midterm elections in November if the Supreme Court changes the rules when it rules in June.
“The challenge is educating voters shortly before the election about how the election will work,” said Aguilar, a Democrat. “This doesn’t happen overnight. Election planning happens long in advance.”
Nevada election officials and 13 other states Which allows regular mail ballots to be sent by Election Day but arrive several days later to be counted had its attention been drawn to Monday’s arguments, in which the conservative justices He looked skeptical These grace periods. Fifteen other states have designated grace periods for military and foreign voters.
Mail-in ballots, also called absentee ballots, have been a source of conspiracy theories From President Donald Trumpwho baselessly blames them for it Losing in the 2020 elections. The Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party have sued to overturn a Mississippi law that allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and arriving five days later to be counted, a case the Supreme Court is now considering.
During arguments that lasted nearly two hours, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of the court’s six-conservative supermajority, asked RNC lawyer Paul Clement whether ruling during the court’s regular time in June would conflict with the court’s principle of avoiding issuing decisions that could disrupt upcoming elections.
“June will give them a lot of time,” Clement said of election officials overseeing voting in November.
That’s not the case, said Tammy Patrick, a former Arizona elections official who serves as chief program officer at the National Association of Election Officials’ Elections Center. Most elections offices have already printed fliers, signs and even ballot envelopes with the current election deadlines for use in November. They will have to rush to reprint that material, usually months or years in advance in order to save money.
“No one has budgeted to reprint all of their teaching materials for midterms,” Patrick said. “This is the difficult point for election officials.”
Monday’s case revolves around only a small portion of the votes counted during the election year.
In Nevada, for example, 98% of all mail-in ballots arrive before Election Day. Of those who arrive later, 95% land the next day. In Illinois, another state that allows ballots to arrive late, 106,000 ballots arrived during the state’s 14-day grace period in 2024, just under 2% of the 5.5 million votes cast in that election.
Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said the biggest challenge if the mail-in ballot deadline is changed is informing voters that they face a tougher deadline. He said the council will work with local election offices to spread the word.
In Alaska, with its vast distances and isolated population centers sometimes connected only by air, the state’s 10-day grace period is… Civil lifeline for some communities.
“The idea that the outcome of Watson v. Republican National Committee could reshape the election next June is terrifying to me, and to the thousands of Alaskans who will have to rethink the way they approach voting come Election Day,” said Michelle Spark of the group Get Out the Native Vote.
Massachusetts holds its primary election on Sept. 1, so it cannot send general election votes before then, said Debra O’Malley, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office.
“You can’t change these things with small amounts,” O’Malley said, expressing concern that there would be no concessions in this timeline to the itinerary the Supreme Court might prefer.
Patrick, of the National League, said elections administrators are finding it increasingly difficult to adjust to sudden fluctuations in voting laws that have followed Trump’s attacks on voting. In Texas last year, 3,000 election-related pieces of legislation were introduced in the state legislature, and election officials must prepare for any changes months in advance, Patrick said.
That’s why the Supreme Court formulated what it called the “Purcell Doctrine,” a name based on a previous case out of Arizona. In 2006, the court reversed a decision that struck down the state’s voter ID law shortly before the election, ruling that judges should not change the procedures so soon before the vote.
Patrick worked for the elections office in Maricopa County, the most populous county in Arizona, at the time.
“When the rules of engagement change closer to an election, you don’t have enough time to notify voters and explain that policy change,” she said.
She worries that such a last-minute shift could happen if the court changes the rules for mail-in balloting late, noting that rural voters whose mail is delivered more slowly face the greatest risk of being disenfranchised.
Aguilar said he expects his office and local election officials in Nevada to take a hit, but he is concerned about the devastating ruling.
He added: “Changing the rules of the game in the middle of the competition will not benefit anyone.”
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Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois, contributed to this report.