- United States
- Letter
Rejecting timely-cast ballots for usps delays violates the right to vote
To: Justices Court
From: A verified voter in Budd Lake, NJ
March 24
The suggestion that states may be barred from counting mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day but received afterward is not just misguided—it is constitutionally unsound.
Under Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, states retain primary authority over the “Times, Places and Manner” of elections. For decades, states across the country—urban and rural, red and blue—have lawfully exercised that authority to ensure that ballots cast on time are counted, even if delivery is delayed. Stripping that authority now would be an extraordinary federal intrusion into state election administration.
More importantly, rejecting timely-cast ballots solely due to postal delays violates the fundamental right to vote protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Voters who comply fully with the law should not be disenfranchised because of factors entirely outside their control. Such a rule would disproportionately burden military voters, rural communities, and working Americans who rely on mail-in voting.
The Constitution does not permit arbitrary disenfranchisement. It demands equal protection, fairness, and access.
To invalidate these laws would not protect elections—it would undermine them, eroding public trust and denying lawful voters their voice.
The Court must reject this dangerous overreach and uphold the principle that ballots cast legally and on time must be counted.