‘Today’s decision will only exacerbate voters’ distrust,’ Justice Alito writes in dissent on mail ballot ruling

Politics admin June 29, 2026 0 Comments

‘Today’s decision will only exacerbate voters’ distrust,’ Justice Alito writes in dissent on mail ballot ruling

Dissenting from the Supreme Court’s majority on Monday, some conservative justices appeared to agree with President Trump’s claims that voting bymail increases the chances of election fraud.

In a dissent joined by other conservative justices,Justice Samuel Alito said the court’s 5-4 decision to uphold state laws that allow late-arriving ballots to be counted, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, “presents a greater opportunity for voter manipulation.” Chief Justice John Roberts and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices in the majority.

Trump repeatedly claims, without evidence, that mailed ballots led to widespread voter fraud in his reelection loss to Joe Biden in 2020. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled on a case from Mississippi that pit the state against the Trump administration and the Republican National Committee. The Libertarian Party of Mississippi also challenged the state’s election laws.

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The court ruled that states are not violating federal election law by counting ballots that arrive after the election. ButAlito argued that federal law states that Election Day is “a specified date, not a span of multiple days,” and does not allow for the counting of late ballots. He also wrote that allowing mail ballots “to pour in over the days and weeks after election day, by which point preliminary election returns are being publicly reported, creates greater opportunity for fraud and risks further undermining the public’s confidence in election integrity.”

“Even in the absence of partisan rhetoric, drawn-out ballot-counting ‘induces a large, significant decrease’ in Americans’ trust in elections,” Alito wrote, citing an academic article.“By allowing States to continue receiving new ballots during these drawn-out processes, today’s decision will only exacerbate voters’ distrust.”

Below is Alito’s full dissent, which was joined by conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined Alito in part.