US Supreme Court blocks Trump bid to restrict mail ballots
The decision leaves existing state mail-voting procedures in place for November’s midterm elections, though the court gave no reasoning.
The US Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to impose new restrictions on mail ballots ahead of November’s midterm elections, leaving states free to continue their existing voting procedures, according to France 24 International.
The brief emergency-docket order came as voting was already beginning. Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin had started sending mail ballots over the preceding week, while election officials warned that a last-minute overhaul could disrupt distribution.
Trump’s administration had sought a uniform envelope style, online submission of eligible-voter lists and the possible refusal by the US Postal Service to deliver ballots from states that failed to comply.
The court did not explain its reasoning. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed the restrictions should not take effect for the midterms but indicated he might take a different view if the issue returned to the court.
Lower courts had blocked the administration’s plan after Democratic state officials and voting-rights groups challenged it. The administration argued that federal control of the Postal Service authorised the requirements and that states could comply.
Mail ballots account for nearly one-third of votes cast, and the proposed changes could have had a particularly significant effect in Washington and Oregon, where elections are conducted almost entirely by mail. Election officials in several states welcomed the ruling as allowing established election processes to continue.
