A second federal judge has blocked the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from implementing President Donald Trump's executive order that aimed to restrict mail-in voting in the lead-up to the midterm elections. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, concluded that the new regulations could significantly impede voters' ability to cast ballots by mail in the final weeks before the election.
Nichols issued a preliminary injunction to halt the directive, stating, "The public has a strong interest in ensuring that... a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted in the upcoming elections." He also ruled that the regulations exceeded the USPS's authority, adding, "No statute grants the Postal Service the power to issue key parts of the rule."
The administration has urged the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the executive order to take effect. U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the injunction risks "sowing confusion and chaos" by making preparatory steps for mail-in voting voluntary rather than mandatory.
Under the new rule, states would have been required to provide the USPS with lists of mail-in ballot recipients and allow the agency to verify these against a central voter database. The USPS would have also had the authority to reject ballots from voters not found in the database.
Critics argued that these measures could disenfranchise millions of voters, particularly the roughly one-third who cast ballots by mail. As of the ruling, three states—North Carolina, Alabama, and Wisconsin—had already sent out mail-in ballots, with more states expected to follow.
"The USPS has no authority in the Constitution or federal law over how states administer mail voting," stated Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "The president cannot order the Postal Service to create a disruptive new bureaucracy that will throw the election into chaos and disenfranchise untold numbers of voters."
Concerns were also raised about the operational readiness of the USPS system. A whistleblower report cited numerous problems with the development of the new system for mail-in ballots, and federal officials had previously acknowledged in court uncertainty about its operational status.
