Supreme Court's ruling on mail-in ballot deadlines could have an outsized impact in rural areas

Both Republicans and Democrats have large numbers
of voters who mail their ballots. (Adobe Stock photo)

The U.S. Supreme Court plans to rule on mail-in ballot deadlines this term, which could have an outsized impact on a subset of voters, including thousands of rural voters, should the court decide that ballots arriving after Election Day must be tossed.

The case centers on a Mississippi law that allows mailed ballots to be counted even when they arrive after Election Day, but roughly "18 states and territories accept such late-arriving ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day," report Nick Corasaniti and Christine Zhang of The New York Times.

Should the court decide that all votes must be received by Election Day, mail-in voters from rural areas will be challenged to mail their votes early enough to be counted.

Voters in the southwestern town of Medford, Oregon, provide a good example. When a Medford voter mails a ballot from the local post office, it doesn't go to the "town clerk’s office only a few miles away," the Times reports. "Instead, it travels about 280 miles north on Interstate 5 to Portland, to get a postmark stamped, before returning to the Medford elections office to be counted."

Rural mail services are also more likely to be delayed by local weather conditions or traffic bottlenecks due to bad weather or natural disasters far from their zip codes.

States with sprawling rural areas and high electoral college numbers, such as California, Texas, Illinois, and New York, currently allow late-arriving ballots to be counted. Should the Supreme Court ax that allowance, both parties could see Election Day impacts.

No matter what the Supreme Court decides, ongoing election education can remind citizens how and when to vote. David Becker, from the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told the Times, "For people who are voting once every four years, or once every two years, they’re not familiar with all these procedures and changes."