The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to let the Postal Service enforce its mail-ballot rules before the November midterm elections. Justices views on voting by mail now turn on whether those rules can take effect while ballots are already moving out in Wisconsin and North Carolina.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed the emergency appeal to halt a district court's 14-day order that blocked enforcement last week. He told the justices the Postal Service rule “imposes only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements for federal-election ballots sent.”
Talwani's 14-day order
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued the temporary block while she considered a request for longer relief from two dozen Democratic-led states and voting rights groups challenging the mail-voting measures. A hearing on a bid for a preliminary injunction was held earlier Thursday, keeping the dispute on a fast track as states prepared to mail ballots.
The rule at issue requires states and localities to meet design standards for mail ballots, including unique barcodes, and to submit voter information through an online portal. That information includes names, addresses and individualized barcodes, and voters enrolled under the rule are placed on state-specific Mail-In and Absentee Participation Lists.
Postal Service rules in practice
Sauer argued that the rule's regulation of the U.S. Mail is “plainly constitutional,” and said states cannot use federal mail to run elections while treating election-related mail as exempt from Postal Service rulemaking authority. He also said the judge's block “nullifies” the Postal Service's effort to address voter fraud through mail voting.
The practical effect is immediate for election offices sending ballots now. At least two municipalities in Wisconsin have already mailed ballots out, mail ballots will go out to certain voters Friday in North Carolina, and more states will begin sending them around mid-September.
Jackson's Tuesday morning deadline
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked the states and voting rights organizations to respond by Tuesday morning, leaving the Supreme Court with a short runway before more ballots leave election offices. President Trump voted by mail in elections in Florida this year, even as the Trump administration presses to keep the Postal Service rules in place.
The unresolved fight is whether the Supreme Court will pause the district court order before more states finish sending mail ballots. For states and local election offices, the answer will determine whether they must keep building ballots around the Postal Service's barcode and voter-information requirements or wait for the block to be lifted.
