Trump administration appeals again to US Supreme Court over mail-in voting

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has made another appeal to the Supreme Court to allow new restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the midterms in November.

Two days after a federal judge blocked the US Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing Trump’s executive order, the administration on Sunday escalated the matter to the country’s highest court, asking justices to temporarily allow the agency to track mail-in ballots and decide whether they could be rejected. The ongoing legal battle comes even as some states have already begun sending out postal ballots.

US District Judge Indira Talwani issued an order on Friday that said Trump’s directives, which would grant the federal government power over the handling of mail-in ballots, are likely unconstitutional. In the US, elections – including ones for federal office – are carried out by states.

The judge also criticised the timing of the executive order’s implementation, writing that, with just two months until election day, it “threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail”.

But in its emergency filing on Sunday, the Trump administration countered Talwani’s ruling: “Contrary to the claims of the district court and respondents that the Postal Service is trying to federalise the rules for mail-in voting, the Postal Service’s final rule imposes only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements for federal-election ballots sent via U.S. Mail”.

US Solicitor General John Sauer, who argues cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the federal government, said Trump’s order would not seize control of states’ right to administer elections, but would only impose “reasonable preparation requirements” for mail-in ballots.

“[The rule] requires States to upload the name, address and barcode information of intended recipients of ballot mail in an online portal — information that election officials would necessarily already possess to send ballot mail under the Rule to those recipients,” Sauer wrote in the filing. “The Rule ensures that States remain responsible for determining voter eligibility and eligibility to vote by mail, and it does not dictate ballot content, mailing or receipt deadlines, or ballot-counting procedures.”

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson set a deadline of Wednesday for responses to the Trump administration’s request.