California should require mail-in ballots to arrive by Election Day

California should change its laws to require ballots to arrive by Election Day — even if the Supreme Court says it doesn’t have to do so.

California’s leaders celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in Watson v. RNC to allow states to accept ballots that arrive late, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

But whether a law is constitutional is a separate question from whether it is the best policy.

As Justice Samuel Alito made clear in his dissent, the majority’s decision creates uncertainty at a time when public confidence in election security is low.

California still counts ballots weeks after Election Day, a stark example of how late ballot deadlines can drag out elections and prolong disputes, further eroding public trust in our institutions. That should concern anyone who believes elections should be transparent, orderly and reliable. 

When ballots continue to arrive after polls close, the public is asked to accept a process that declares results before ballots have been received and counted. Results can shift long after Election Day, headlines can change, and confidence in a fair process can deteriorate. Even when the rules are lawful, the appearance of an election that can take days to conclude invites suspicion and frustration.

Within our system of federalism, the state legislatures now have an opportunity to lead. States have an obligation to strengthen election confidence by requiring mail-in ballots to be received no later than the close of polls on Election Day. That rule is simple and clear, and it restores the basic understanding that Election Day means results are determined on Election Day.

The case for a firm receipt deadline is not complicated and becomes even stronger when you consider the problems with postmarks. A postmark may seem like an objective way to tell when a ballot was mailed, but in practice it is a poor substitute for a real deadline. Postmarks are not always applied consistently, and when they are, they may not accurately reflect when the Postal Service first received the envelope. Mail processing can vary, and ballots handled through private carriers do not rely on traditional postmarks in the same way. That means the supposed proof of timeliness can be uncertain, uneven, or missing altogether.

When a state uses postmarks as the deciding factor, it opens the door to confusion and disputes. Voters may believe a ballot was mailed in time, only to learn later that the postmark is unclear or disputed. Election officials are then left to resolve questions that should never have existed in the first place. Instead of a clean deadline, the process depends on a postmark that may be unreliable, incomplete, or delayed by factors outside voters’ control. 

California recognizes this implicitly in certain special elections that require mail-in ballots to arrive by Election Day. The recent vote in Los Angeles on streetlight fees, conducted under the rules of Proposition 218, required property owners to make sure their ballots arrived by Election Day; a postmark was not good enough.

States can follow the model crafted by members of the American Legislative Exchange Council –– the Deadline for Return and Receipt of All Ballots Act –– to ensure every ballot that counts is received by the close of polls on Election Day. That is how legislatures can help restore clarity, finality and trust.

The public deserves elections that conclude promptly, so that results can be trusted and accepted. When ballots are allowed to arrive after Election Day, states create incentives for delay and confusion that can spill into recounts, certification, and the broader public debate over legitimacy.

California’s prolonged count is not an isolated inconvenience. It is a warning. If states want elections that command confidence, they should not normalize a system in which the count continues long after the vote has supposedly ended.

Katherine T. Bennett is director of the Process and Procedures Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

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