Trump pushes Supreme Court to limit mail voting as ballots start reaching voters
As North Carolina voters began receiving mail-in ballots on Friday, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to revive an executive order sharply restricting mail voting. The dispute unfolds weeks before midterms that will decide control of Congress.
North Carolina became the first state this election cycle to start sending out mail-in ballots on Friday. At the same time, the Trump administration filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court asking it to lift a lower court's block on a March executive order that would sharply restrict mail voting. The filing landed just as ballots began going out, roughly two months before the November midterms.
North Carolina election officials say they are proceeding as planned regardless of the litigation, with the state's elections chief describing the ballot distribution as "business as usual." Alabama is expected to begin a similar process later this month.
What the order would do
Trump signed the executive order in March, citing concerns that mail voting is prone to fraud — an argument linked to his longstanding claim that mail ballots cost him the 2020 election. According to research group States United, nearly a third of Americans — more than 48 million voters — cast ballots by mail in the 2024 general election.
The order would require states to submit lists of eligible voters through a federal portal, with the Postal Service instructed to deliver ballots only to voters on the approved lists. Democratic-led states sued, arguing the Constitution grants states, not the federal government, authority over election administration. Last week, federal judge Indira Talwani blocked the order, ruling that compliance would be "practically impossible" given how close states are to distributing ballots.
Adding further pressure, a Postal Service whistleblower has warned that the technology underpinning the new voter-list portal was built hastily and is error-prone, raising the risk that millions of ballots could go undelivered. The Supreme Court has already intervened once, temporarily lifting a separate lower-court block without ruling on the order's merits, leaving its legal status unresolved just as voting begins.
The outcome carries high stakes for Trump. The midterms will determine control of Congress for the rest of his term, and polling suggests Republicans risk losing their narrow House majority. A Democratic-controlled House could block his legislative agenda and has signaled it may pursue a third impeachment attempt against him.
