Key parts of President Donald Trump’s mail-in voting order will remain blocked in 23 states after a federal appeals court refused to let the administration move forward with them before the midterm elections.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected the Trump administration’s request to let the order move forward in states that sued over it. The court said state and local officials, not the executive branch, are responsible for running federal elections.
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The order and ruling
Trump’s March executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security to help create state-by-state lists of citizens to determine voter eligibility. It also called on the U.S. Postal Service to verify voters using lists provided by states.
The Postal Service later proposed rules requiring states to provide voter information before the agency would deliver mail ballots. Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress in June that, under the proposed rule, the agency would not deliver ballots for states that refused to provide the required lists.
The appeals court said the order would create “unprecedented levels” of federal involvement in state election administration. The judges also said allowing the changes before November could “sow confusion” and threaten to disenfranchise eligible voters.
The ruling only applies to the 23 states that challenged the order. That means voters could face different rules depending on where they live.
The legal picture is complicated by a separate appeals court decision that set aside a wider injunction. It is still unclear whether the Postal Service will try to apply the proposed changes outside the 23 states covered by the remaining block. A Postal Service spokesperson declined to say whether the agency would move forward, citing pending litigation.
The Justice Department has indicated it may ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
Mail-in voter claims
Trump has repeatedly made unfounded claims that mail-in voting is vulnerable to widespread fraud, even though studies have found fraud involving mail ballots to be rare.
A Brookings Institution analysis found an average mail-voting fraud rate of about four cases for every 10 million mail votes across the 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 general elections. The conservative Heritage Foundation’s election fraud database lists 387 cases involving absentee ballots across elections recorded since 1982.
Round out your reading
- Your phone isn’t really eavesdropping. But it still knows all about you.
- After years of denying other elections, MyPillow founder won’t accept his own defeat.
- Gun suppressors sold unregistered for the first time since FDR, but not for everyone.
- Why an over-scrolled generation is turning to ‘grandma hobbies’ for mental health.
- Our personal information is for sale on the internet. We know — we bought it.
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