Washington elections officials awaiting US Supreme Court rulings on mail-in ballots
Two court cases could change election rules for voters in Washington, where ballots are cast by mail rather than at a polling place.
One case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, could force the state to change its election laws, requiring ballots in federal races to arrive by Election Day in order to be valid. That case involving the state of Mississippi is before the U.S. Supreme Court, where a decision is due by Tuesday, the last day of the high court’s current term. When the case was argued in March, observers believed that the justices were leaning toward a strict interpretation of “Election Day” and would invalidate Mississippi law that accepts ballots five days after election day.
A second case is a multistate lawsuit that challenges an executive order by President Donald Trump requiring the U.S. Postal Service to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots to voters in states that won’t turn over their voter registration rolls to the federal government. A federal court has stayed Trump’s executive order.
Both cases are designed to sow chaos and distrust in the election process, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and other officials told The Bellingham Herald.
“It would create a lot of confusion if there’s a federal deadline for ballots and a state deadline. I think it would call into question for the Legislature and the governor about how soon and what to do in response to that,” if the Watson case invalidates state law, Brown said in an interview after he spoke Wednesday to the Bellingham City Club. “It would create a lot of confusion for voters.”
For the Aug. 4 primary, ballots will be mailed to all registered Washington voters July 15 and must be returned via drop box or postmarked in the mail by 8 p.m. Aug. 4. Voters can check the status of their ballot at vote.wa.gov. Individuals can check their voter registration status by visiting vote.org.
In a statement Thursday regarding the delivery of ballots, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs praised a judge’s order saying that neither the president nor the Postal Service has constitutional authority over mail-in ballots.
“The executive order would give the federal government control over who can and cannot vote in state elections. The Trump administration’s attempts to access Washington voters’ private information are unlawful and unconstitutional. We will continue to oppose any similar actions by the federal government,” Hobbs told The Herald in an email.
Whatcom County Auditor Stacy Henthorn told The Herald that her office is watching the cases closely.
“Currently, we are following existing law for the upcoming primary election,” Henthorn said in an email.
Former Whatcom County Council member Todd Donovan, who is a political science professor at Western Washington University, told The Herald that state and local officials will let voters know about any changes in voting procedures.
“The auditor and the secretary of state will have to do a mass education campaign, but they already kind of do that every election,” Donovan told The Herald in a phone interview. “The scope of how disastrous this might be is not as bad as it might seem.”
Donovan, whose research at WWU examines politics and voter behavior, said Trump is not having much success at undermining the election process.
“This is just Trump using his megaphone to question or discredit the legitimacy of the election. It hasn’t had as much of an effect as people thought it would. It’s fortunately not moving the needle very much in the context of voting by mail,” he said.
Washington has voted entirely by mail since 2011. Whatcom County has been voting by mail since 2005, when the Legislature allowed counties to take that step on their own.
A dozen U.S. states, including Washington, accept ballots that are returned after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by 8 p.m. the day of the election. Washington accepts qualified ballots in the mail until the election is certified, often as much as three weeks later. Ballots also are cast at special drop boxes around Whatcom County. Voter booths are set up at the County Courthouse on Election Day for voters who want to bring their ballots and have an in-person voting experience.
Whatcom County voters cast 139,080 ballots in the last federal election on Nov. 5, 2024, a turnout of 83%, according to Auditor’s Office records.
A total of 108,506 ballots arrived from ballot drop boxes. About 30,100 ballots were returned by mail, including those that were accepted and rejected, Henthorn said.
“We received 3,940 ballots after Election Day with an on-time postmark. We received 156 ballots after election day with a late postmark,” Henthorn said in an email.
No local instances of voter fraud were reported in the November 2024 election, she said.
This story was originally published June 27, 2026 at 5:25 AM with the headline "Washington elections officials awaiting US Supreme Court rulings on mail-in ballots."
