Federal law would reject mailed ballots that arrive after polls close.
S. 5001 — Ballots by Election Day Act · Filed by Ashley Moody (R-FL) · Introduced Jul 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill changes federal election law. All mailed ballots must reach election officials by polls close on Election Day. States cannot count ballots that arrive late. Military and overseas voters get an exception.
Who it affects
Voters who mail ballots but whose ballots arrive late will lose their votes. This includes voters who mailed on time but faced postal delays. Military and overseas voters can have ballots counted late.
One thing to notice
Ballots mailed days before Election Day may still arrive after polls close. Voters who followed all mailing rules will lose their votes anyway. States with longer mail times will reject more ballots than faster states.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Rules and Administration · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- election officials — Government workers who run elections and count votes in each state or county.
- election law — Rules that control how elections work and how votes are counted.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,948 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
“Federal law would reject mailed ballots that arrive after polls close.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5001/simple Report an error