The Trump administration has filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to allow new U.S. Postal Service rules for mail ballots to take effect immediately, just weeks before the November midterm elections.
The Justice Department submitted the request Thursday after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani temporarily blocked the rules. The administration is asking the Supreme Court to suspend that order while the legal battle continues.
The new USPS requirements would require states using the mail for election ballots to follow specific envelope-design rules, use unique Intelligent Mail barcodes, and submit information about mail-ballot recipients through a federal system. Under the disputed rule, ballots that do not comply with the new requirements could potentially be refused for delivery.
That has triggered a major legal fight over who has authority to regulate elections.
A coalition of Democratic-led states and voting-rights organizations argues that the federal government is moving beyond its authority over the Postal Service and into an area traditionally controlled by the states. They also warn that introducing major procedural changes so close to an election could create confusion and potentially prevent otherwise valid ballots from reaching election officials.
The Trump administration rejects that argument.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court that the rule regulates the use of the U.S. mail, not elections themselves. The administration says states may control how their elections are conducted, but cannot use the federal postal system while refusing to follow Postal Service requirements governing election mail.
The timing has made the case especially urgent.
Some states are already preparing to send ballots for the November election. North Carolina was scheduled to begin mailing ballots as early as September 4, while Alabama was also expected to begin before the lower court’s temporary order expires on September 10. The administration argues that once ballots are placed in the mail, later court rulings could come too late to apply the new system to those ballots.
Judge Talwani has expressed concerns not only about the constitutional questions surrounding the rule, but also about whether the new federal system is ready to operate. During a hearing Thursday, questions were raised about the computer portal that states would be expected to use to submit voter information.
Those concerns follow allegations from a whistleblower who said development of the Postal Service system had been rushed and could be vulnerable to errors. USPS has said it is reviewing those concerns and has defended its ability to reliably handle election mail.
This is also not the first time the dispute has reached the Supreme Court. The justices previously lifted an earlier lower-court order that had prevented the administration from developing the policy, but that decision did not resolve whether the final USPS rule itself is lawful. The latest case directly challenges implementation of that rule.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who handles emergency matters arising from the First Circuit, has asked the states challenging the policy to respond to the administration’s request by Tuesday morning. The Supreme Court could then decide whether the new rules can take effect while the broader lawsuit proceeds.
With the midterm elections approaching and millions of Americans expected to vote by mail, the decision could have immediate consequences for election officials and voters across the country.
Sources: Reuters; CBS News; Associated Press
By NJ RADAR Team