SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to California's vote-by-mail rules, keeping in place a law that allows election officials to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked beforehand.
Under California law, a ballot can still count if it is postmarked by Election Day and received by county elections officials within seven days.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber called the decision a victory for voters.
"This assures people that if I put my ballot in the mail and it gets postmarked, that it will be counted in California," Weber said.
Here in San Diego, election officials say they received thousands of ballots that were mailed by Election Day but arrived late during the primaries. As those results are still being verified, officials say the ruling allows them to ensure every ballot is included.
San Diego Registrar of Voters Shawn Brom said the seven-day window made a difference in the most recent primary.
"We still received thousands of ballots after election day, that were postmarked on time, and we were able to get those into the count. So there is still an ongoing process after election day in which there are still timely received ballots that are added into the count," Brom said.
State leaders say the extra time is intended to protect voters from issues like mail delays.
"Even the postal service recognized that it could not guarantee things that were postmarked under the other election actually getting to us in time. That's why we had the 7-day rule because we had some areas where people would mail their ballots, and the normal route for postal services goes from California to Oregon and back to California," Weber said.
Opponents of the law have argued that stricter election deadlines would help protect voter confidence in the process.
Election officials say they will keep working to educate voters and make sure they understand the rules before Election Day.
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