The Supreme Court’s six conservatives sounded ready to rule that ballots must be received by election day to be counted as legal. Californians may be forced to put their ballots in the mail well before election day to be certain they will be counted. That’s the likely outcome of a Republican challenge to mail-in ballots that came before the Supreme Court on Monday. GOP lawyers argued that the phrase “election day” has always meant ballots must be in the hands of election officials on that day. Democrats argued that election day is like the federal tax day of April 15.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 23, 2026 17:58 UTC