Ohio Nixed Absentee Ballot Grace Period Before US Supreme Court Ruling, But Court Went The Other Way
Late last year, Gov. Mike DeWine “reluctantly” signed a bill passed by Ohio Republican lawmakers eliminating Ohio’s four-day grace period for absentee ballots.
DeWine explained that a case from Mississippi, pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, weighed heavily on that decision. If the court held that it’s illegal to accept valid ballots after Election Day, he worried, it could wreak havoc on Ohio’s 2026 election.
Instead, a 5-4 court determined Monday that Mississippi’s grace period — and by extension, other state’s grace periods — are perfectly valid.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “while federal law dictates when ballots must be cast, state law dictates when they must be received.”
But because Ohio lawmakers acted prematurely, voters in the Buckeye State will have to have their mail-in ballots to the Board of Elections by election day, regardless of the postmarked dates.
“Republicans in the General Assembly again showed their eagerness to suppress the vote by disenfranchising Ohioans who mail their ballot in on time but not received by election day," said Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga. "The legislature never should have preempted the Supreme Court, and the bill never should have been signed into law. Once again, Ohio’s so-called leaders have taken Ohio backwards while doing nothing about the affordability crisis".