US Supreme Court sides with Trump administration on mail voting

The United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to move ahead with his executive order restricting mail voting, though it remains unclear how much his administration can implement before the fast-approaching midterm elections in November.

The decision on Monday appears to leave room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump’s order. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. The three liberal justices dissented from the decision.

The US Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes with some states beginning to send mail ballots to voters in just a few weeks.

Voting by mail has long been a favourite target for Trump, who has claimed that it breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and his own use of the voting method.

The case could be one of multiple voting-related challenges before the justices. The US Justice Department had filed an emergency appeal asking the high court to allow work on implementing the changes before the midterms.

Trump’s executive order, signed in March, calls on his administration to create lists of eligible voters and orders the US Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the order. They argued that the US Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections, and Trump’s changes could lead to chaos and partisan abuse.

“The consequences of allowing such transformative changes to take effect so close to this fall’s elections would be extreme,” lawyers for the states wrote. Dozens of state and local election officials weighed in, asking the justices to leave the order frozen while election preparations are already underway.