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VERIFY: States have different deadlines to receive mail-in ballots

Six states could determine the outcome of the election. Some of them will receive mail-in ballots up to a week after Election Day.

WASHINGTON — The entire country waits for the officials' results from a handful of states Thursday morning. Right now, the attention turns to mail-in votes. These ballots that have different deadlines to be received.  

The pandemic has caused mail-in voting to break records across the country. If you didn’t know it, election rules aren’t uniform.

Each state has different deadlines for when they will allow mail-in votes to be counted. As of Thursday morning, there are six states that haven’t been called for either candidate and continue to tally votes.

Question:

What are the deadlines for the mail-in votes to be received in the final states up for grabs?

Answer:

Mail-in votes vary from state to state.

Our Sources:

The election laws in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Our Process:

Let’s start with Arizona and Georgia. Both have closed, all votes had to be in and received by Election Day at 7 p.m.

But in the other states there a few more days for votes to get to where they need to go. The other four needed ballots to be postmarked on or before Election Day. But, the deadlines for them to be received varies.

In Nevada, it’s Nov. 10. North Carolina, Nov. 12.  Alaska, Nov. 13. In Pennsylvania mail-in ballots can be received until Nov. 6.

However, Pennsylvania’s deadline is the result of a lawsuit that created an extension for votes to be received. That lawsuit went to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the time, there were only eight justices and they tied. So, the lower court’s extension was upheld.

Republicans have opposed such an extension in a swing state that could ultimately decide the presidential election. WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will allow Pennsylvania to count mailed-in ballots received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election, rejecting a Republican plea in the presidential battleground state.

After Election Day, President Trump’s campaign filed numerous lawsuits, one of which was in Pennsylvania. The suit will challenge the extension that the lower court created.

The actions reveal an emerging legal strategy that the president had signaled for weeks, namely that he'd attack the integrity of the voting process. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's campaign filed lawsuits Wednesday in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, laying the groundwork for contesting battleground states as he slipped behind Democrat Joe Biden in the hunt for the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.

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