Following the United States Supreme Court’s vote on Monday to uphold a Mississippi law allowing grace periods for mail-in ballots, a security expert is encouraging states to individually regulate ballot counting.

Executive Director of the Center for Renewing America — a D.C.-based conservative think tank — and Marine Corps veteran Wade Miller told Just the News, No Noise on Monday that the court actually sent a “bright signal” to the states with the 5-4 ruling. The vote means that election officials in 18 states and territories can count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, but received up to five days after.

“The court said that if the states want to change these laws, they certainly can,” Miller said. He thinks the “ability to manipulate” ballots can be whittled down if the time window where that kind of fraud can happen is limited, and that Monday’s ruling underscores the importance of the SAVE America Act and the necessity of national election legislation.

Miller emphasized the importance of the American people trusting in the elections process and system so that outcomes are seen as legitimate: if there's no trust, "you start to have a breakdown in the social fabric," he said.

To him, courts need to put a time limit on vote counting.

“You can’t be having millions or hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of ballots showing up miraculously weeks later,” he said, recommending that some sort of logical limitation or test should be implemented to calculate the amount of time after election day ballots can still be received.

U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner said in a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on June 24 that the post office will not comply in delivering absentee ballots for states that don't follow President Trump's March 31 executive order, "Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections."

Miller agrees with the sentiment and believes that if states choose not to comply with federal executive orders and other desires concerning elections, powers can be manipulated to ensure that election outcomes are just, fair and equitable.

Katherine Pugh is a reporter for Just the News. Follow her on X for more coverage.