US Supreme Court rejects Trump's mail ballot restrictions for midterms

The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's bid to impose new mail ballot restrictions, allowing states to continue sending out mail ballots under the processes they have used for years. The ruling came as voting in the midterm elections was already underway.

The administration had asked the court to clear the way for the restrictions before the November contests, which will decide control of Congress. The case carries major weight because nearly one-third of the country votes by mail.

Election officials said a full overhaul of procedures could not be completed in the weeks remaining before the midterms. Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin had already begun sending mail ballots to voters even as the new system remained inactive.

Uniform envelopes and an online portal

The administration's plan would have required states to adopt a uniform envelope style and submit lists of eligible voters through an online portal, with the postal service able to refuse delivery to states that did not comply. A whistleblower report warned that the postal system's requirements could result in millions of mail ballots never being sent, since the portal had not been properly built and a single bar code error could cause an entire batch of ballots to be discarded.

Democratic state officials and voting rights groups challenged the restrictions in court, arguing the president lacks constitutional authority to set election rules that would effectively eliminate mail voting just before a major election. Lower courts agreed and blocked the plan, including through a preliminary injunction issued by a judge Trump himself had nominated.

Trump has long opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, despite frequently using the method to cast his own ballot, including as recently as this year.