Daily Brew: March 23, 2026
Welcome to the Monday, March 23, 2026, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- U.S. Supreme Court to hear oral arguments on legality of Mississippi's absentee ballot return law
- Here’s where K-12 public school teachers get paid parental leave and where they don’t
- Ohio becomes second state this year to ban ranked-choice voting
U.S. Supreme Court to hear oral arguments on legality of Mississippi's absentee ballot return law
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on March 23 in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a case challenging the legality of a Mississippi law that allows absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received up to five business days after the election.
Mississippi is one of 14 states that allow absentee/mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive within a set period of time after the election. The state passed a law allowing for a five-day grace period in 2020. Most states, including Mississippi, also allow at least some absentee/mail-in ballots from military or overseas voters to be counted if they arrive after Election Day.
Of the 36 states requiring absentee/mail-in ballots to be received on or before Election Day, 20 states currently have Republican trifectas, seven states have Democratic trifectas, and nine states have divided government.
Of the 14 states that allow for absentee/mail-in ballots to be received after Election Day, nine currently have Democratic trifectas, three have Republican trifectas, and two have divided government.
The Republican National Committee, the Mississippi Republican Party, the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, George County Election Commissioner Matthew Lamb, and former Hinds County Republican Party Chair James Perry challenged the law in 2024.
These plaintiffs argue that Mississippi's law violates federal law establishing a uniform, national Election Day for congressional and presidential elections. The state, in response, argues that federal law only requires voters to cast their ballots by election day.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in November, after a federal appeals court ruled that federal law requiring a national Election Day preempts, or overrides, Mississippi’s law.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled in favor of the state in July 2024. Plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where in October 2024, a three-judge panel held that Mississippi's statute was unlawful and sent the case back to the district court. Mississippi then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Opponents of the Mississippi law have asked the Supreme Court to uphold the appeals court ruling."The Fifth Circuit rightly held that the 'day for the election' has a fixed meaning," attorneys for the RNC and three other plaintiffs wrote in a brief. "It doesn’t mean whatever each State wants it to mean. It means the day by which ballots must be 'received by state officials.'"
On the other side, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s (R) office wrote in its brief that "[T]he federal election-day statutes require only that the voters cast their ballots by election day. The election has then occurred, even if election officials do not receive all ballots by that day."
On March 10, Mississippi lawmakers sent HB 908 to Gov. Tate Reeves (R). The bill would repeal Mississippi’s five-day grace period if the Supreme Court rules it is unlawful.
In 2025, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, and Utah passed laws requiring absentee/mail-in ballots to be received by the close of polls on Election Day.
Previously, Kansas required ballots to be received by the end of business on the third day following the election. Ohio counted ballots if they arrived within four days after the election. Utah required ballots to be received by noon on the day of the canvass. North Dakota did not have a specific deadline.
So far this year, lawmakers in 21 states have introduced or carried over from the 2025 session 56 bills related to absentee/mail-in voting deadlines. Legislators in Alaska, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia have introduced bills requiring absentee/mail-in ballots to be received by the close of polls on Election Day. Illinois, New Jersey, and New York have Democratic trifectas. West Virginia has a Republican trifecta, and Alaska has a divided government.
West Virginia HB 4600, which ends the state’s current four-day grace period for absentee ballots and requires ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day, passed the House of Delegates 79-17 on Feb. 10. Seventy-nine Republicans voted in support of the bill, while eight Democrats and nine Republicans voted in opposition. The bill is currently under consideration in the state Senate.
Click here for more information on Watson v. Republican National Committee. Click here for more information on absentee/mail-in ballot return deadlines in each of the 50 states.
Here’s where K-12 public school teachers get paid parental leave and where they don’t
A version of this story appeared in Ballotpedia's Hall Pass newsletter on March 11. Click here to sign up.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), there were approximately four million full- and half-time K-12 public school teachers during the 2020-2021 school year. Approximately 70% were under the age of 50. In other words, the vast majority are in the years of life when having and raising children is most common. Approximately 77% of public school teachers are women.
In a recent study, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a think tank that advocates for policies that improve teacher effectiveness, found that most teachers are not covered by paid family leave policies.
Although the U.S. does not guarantee paid parental leave at the national level, several states have implemented their own policies for state workers, including teachers in some cases.
Here’s a look at where public school teachers do and do not have paid parental leave options.
According to the NCTQ, 15 states and D.C. require districts to provide teachers with paid parental leave:
- In six states, teachers can receive partial pay for between 12 and 18 weeks.
- In nine states and D.C., teachers can receive full pay for between six and 12 weeks.
Seven other states give districts the option of participating in an existing state leave program. The remaining 28 states don’t require that districts provide any sort of parental leave. Some districts choose to provide paid leave to teachers, even in states that don’t require it, though the data suggest most don’t. A 2022 NCTQ survey of 148 of the largest school districts in the country found that 18% provided teachers with paid parental leave.
Of the 15 states that require paid parental leave for teachers, seven have Republican trifectas, six have Democratic trifectas, and two have divided governments (both with Democratic governors and Republican-controlled legislatures).
Of the nine states that provide teachers with full pay for the duration of the leave plan, seven have Republican trifectas, one has a Democratic trifecta, and one has a divided government.
In the seven states where districts can participate in a statewide social insurance program, five have Democratic trifectas, and two have Republican trifectas.
Delaware, with a Democratic trifecta, and Arkansas, with a Republican one, have the most expansive parental leave policies for teachers — 12 fully paid weeks off.
For teachers in districts that don’t offer paid leave, options for taking time off after pregnancy or adoption include planning birth times over the summer, using accumulated sick time, or taking unpaid time off through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which President Bill Clinton (D) signed into law in 1993. That law provides eligible employees with up to 12 unpaid weeks for caring for a new child, health emergencies, and caring for family members with health conditions. The law only applies to workers who’ve been at their jobs for a year.
Click here to learn more.
Ohio becomes second state this year to ban ranked-choice voting
On March 17, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed a bill making Ohio the 19th state to ban ranked-choice voting (RCV). Ohio is the second state to enact a prohibition on RCV this year, after Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (R) signed a ban in February. In 2025, six states enacted legislation prohibiting RCV. Six states also passed laws banning RCV in 2024.
Ohio’s law states, “Except as otherwise permitted under Article X or Article XVIII, Ohio Constitution, no election shall be conducted in this state using ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting.”
Under a 1951 Ohio Supreme Court ruling, municipalities are allowed to adopt RCV by using their constitutional home rule powers. The new law prevents municipalities that adopt RCV from receiving any local government fund distributions from the state.
On Feb. 25, the Ohio House of Representatives approved the RCV prohibition 65-27, with 63 Republicans and two Democrats voting in favor and 27 Democrats voting against. On March 3, the Senate passed the bill 24-7, with 23 Republicans and one Democrat voting in favor and seven Democrats voting against.
Speaking on the floor of the Ohio House, Rep. Sharon Ray (R) said, “While some voting machines might be able to accept the software update needed to tabulate grant choice voting, the update would be significant and costly. Boards of elections that have older machines would most likely have to be replaced.”
In a Feb. 17 committee hearing, Common Cause Ohio associate director Mia Lewis said, “This bill is not just about prohibiting a rank choice voting system from state elections; it prohibits them in some cases and provides significant disincentives in other cases, even in supposedly ‘home rule’ entities. Why dissuade local governments from exploring a system of voting that may work better for their communities?”
Seventeen of the 19 states that prohibit RCV had Republican trifectas at the time the prohibition was enacted, including Ohio. The other two states — Kansas and Kentucky — had divided governments, both with Democratic governors and Republican majorities in both legislative chambers.
Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine use RCV for at least some statewide elections. At the time those states approved RCV, Alaska and Maine had divided governments, and Hawaii had a Democratic trifecta.
Municipalities in 14 states use RCV for local elections.
RCV is a system where voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. In the RCV system most commonly used in the United States, a candidate who wins a majority of first-preference votes is the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
Ballots that ranked an eliminated candidate as their first, or highest choice, depending on the round, are then reevaluated and counted as first-preference ballots for the next-highest-ranked candidate in that round. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority of ballots. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.
Click here to read more about RCV in the United States.
