Supreme Court allows North Carolina to accept ballots up to nine days after election

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that North Carolina can receive and count ballots that officials receive up to nine days after Election Day.

The State Board of Elections said in September that it would move the deadline for accepting ballots back from Nov. 3 to Nov. 12. Ballots still must be mailed by Tuesday in order to be counted, but the extension relaxes concerns that delays from the U.S. Postal Service would lead to ballots going uncounted.

At issue in the North Carolina case was whether the State Board of Elections had the authority to change the deadline without a law passed by the state’s Legislature.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas dissented in the 5-3 ruling. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed and sworn in this week, did not take part in the case.

“Despite the General Assembly’s considered judgment about the appropriate response to COVID, other state actors — including the State Board of Elections — recently chose to issue their own additional and supplemental set of amendments to state election laws,” Gorsuch wrote in his dissent. “Everyone agrees, too, that the North Carolina Constitution expressly vests all legislative power in the General Assembly, not the Board or anyone else.”

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein praised the court’s decision. “North Carolina voters had a huge win tonight at the U.S. Supreme Court,” he wrote in a statement. “The Court upheld the State Board of Elections’ effort to ensure that every eligible vote counts, even during a pandemic.”

In a similar case on Wednesday, the Supreme Court blocked a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn the state high court’s decision that requires mail-in ballots sent by Election Day and received up to three days later to be counted.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled against Democrats in Wisconsin who pushed to accept ballots that were received after Election Day.