Ohio Gov. DeWine signed S.B. 293, eliminating four-day grace period for mailed absentee ballots

On December 19, 2025, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed S.B. 293, eliminating the state's four-day grace period that had allowed mailed absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrived within four days after the election. An estimated 7,800 absentee ballots in Ohio's 2024 election had arrived within that window and would have been discarded under the new law.

Ohio's grace period had been designed to protect voters from mail delays outside their control — a voter who mailed their ballot on or before Election Day could have it counted even if the postal service was slow. DeWine said he normally would have vetoed the bill, but signed it out of concern for a pending U.S. Supreme Court case from Mississippi, Watson v. Republican National Committee, which he feared might require elimination of all such grace periods; he worried that if Ohio kept its grace period and the Court later ruled it illegal, the disruption to Ohio's 2026 elections would be severe. The Ohio General Assembly had introduced S.B. 293 on October 14, 2025 and fast-tracked it through both chambers within five weeks, passing by November 19.

Civil rights organizations, including the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, expressed disappointment at DeWine's signature. Voting rights advocates noted that the seven-thousand-plus affected ballots in 2024 came disproportionately from voters relying on a postal system that regularly experiences Election Day backlogs.

Updates

On June 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in Watson v. Republican National Committee that federal election-day statutes do not preempt state laws allowing mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted after it. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority: "The election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt, so they do not prevent Mississippi from counting ballots postmarked before election day yet received afterward." The ruling confirmed that Ohio's grace period had been constitutionally valid and its elimination was not required. Ohio's law remains in effect. Sources: SCOTUSblog, NPR.