WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s proposal to limit mail-in voting in the midterm elections, ending a flurry of last-minute lawsuits as voting has already begun.
The decision will allow states to continue sending out mail-in ballots using the same process they have used for years and accounted for nearly one-third of all votes cast.
This meant a complete defeat for President Trump, an issue he has consistently emphasized as essential to ensuring the integrity of the election, despite virtually no evidence of mail-in voting fraud.
majority of the supreme court did not explain the reason in detailtypical of emergency records. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented from the brief order.
The Trump administration, once again embroiled in political controversy, had asked the courts to clear the way for regulation ahead of a crucial November election for control of Congress.
Alito wrote in his dissent that the Postal Service “has broad authority to regulate the mail” and likely has the authority to enforce President Trump’s restrictions.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect during the midterm elections, but suggested he could rule in favor of the Trump administration if the issue were brought up in court at a later date.
Election officials said there was no way they could conduct a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterm elections. In fact, Alabama, North Carolina, and Wisconsin began sending mail-in ballots to voters last week while the new system was not yet in effect.
The administration’s efforts could be particularly devastating in states such as Washington and Oregon, which only vote by mail.
“Washington’s election officials are already working hard to prepare to conduct a safe, secure and accurate election,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a written statement. “That work continues now without changing the election process to meet unrealistic ballot requirements.”
Secretary of State Jenna Griswold called the court’s ruling “a huge victory for Colorado and American democracy. Voting by mail is protected for Colorado voters,” in Colorado, where nearly all voters cast their ballots by mail.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
The Trump administration’s plan would require states to submit their lists of voters to an online portal using a uniform envelope format. The Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots to states that don’t comply.
But the whistleblower report says millions of mail-in ballots may not be sent because the postal system’s requirements meant the portal was not built properly and a single barcode error could cause the entire ballot to be thrown out.
Watch the segment in the player above.
Democratic state officials and voting rights groups challenged the restrictions in court, arguing that the president lacked the constitutional authority to set election rules that would “effectively eliminate mail-in voting on the eve of a major election.”
Lower courts agreed and blocked President Trump’s plan, including a preliminary injunction issued by a judge appointed by the president.
However, the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the federal government’s control of the Postal Service allows it to set rules for handling mail-in ballots and that compliance is possible.
The federal government won an early procedural ruling in the Supreme Court, but the justices did not clearly rule on the plan’s legality.
Trump has long opposed mail-in voting, falsely blaming it for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, but has frequently used it to cast his own votes, including this year.