Supreme Court Threatens California's 7-Day Mail Ballot Grace Period as State Seeks $35 Million
Updated
Updated · Los Angeles Times · Jun 9
Supreme Court Threatens California's 7-Day Mail Ballot Grace Period as State Seeks $35 Million
3 articles · Updated · Los Angeles Times · Jun 9
Summary
California could be forced to require mail ballots in federal races to arrive by Election Day if the Supreme Court rules this month against Mississippi’s five-day grace period.
406,000 late-arriving ballots were counted in California in 2024, but experts said they were only 2.5% of the total and not the main reason results take days.
More than 7.7 million ballots from last week’s primary had been counted by Monday, with over 1.7 million still unprocessed, underscoring that bottlenecks center on ballots cast on or before Election Day.
$35 million has been requested for voter education and another $55 million for county processing upgrades, while officials weigh hybrid in-person options and possible split rules for federal and state races.
Nearly 89% of ballots were cast by mail in last year’s special election, leaving California under pressure to speed counts without feeding baseless fraud claims or reducing ballot access.