Election Mail

From Oregon to Florida, officials are at once reassuring voters that their ballots are safe and encouraging them to use drop boxes or vote in person

The courts may ultimately decide that USPS has the authority to impose the rule, but the practical obstacles are mounting by the day.

Erik Katz, Notus: President Donald Trump’s push to have the U.S. Postal Service screen voters for eligibility in the midterm election is running up against tight deadlines that some officials are warning will cause massive errors and disenfranchisement. The Supreme Court this week temporarily allowed the Postal Service to move forward with a new plan — based on a Trump executive order … Read More

Verdict Justia: Two decades ago, the Supreme Court had the wisdom to foresee the trouble that would ensue if courts made decisions about voting and elections when an election was looming. In the run-up to the 2006 midterms, the Court “reinstated a previously blocked citizenship law in Arizona”—Proposition 200—“just two and a half weeks before Election Day.” In a per curiam decision, … Read More

Issuing the final rule was intended to put the Postal Service in a position to move quickly, but it may have made the legal path to implementation even more difficult.

Sometime this week, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the DOJ’s application to stay an injunction that has barred federal agencies from fully implementing Trump’s executive order on mail voting. The ruling will probably determine if the order can be implemented in time to impact the November midterms. The case involves Executive Order 14399, “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and … Read More

Democracy Docket: A federal judge in Massachusetts Tuesday issued another order blocking the United States Postal Service (USPS) from implementing President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting and his attempt to create a national voter registration list before the midterm elections. District Judge Indira Talwani agreed with a coalition of voting-rights groups led by the League of Women Voters … Read More

The complaint is a direct consequence of a recent circuit court ruling saying allegations of a violation of the advisory opinion statute must first go through the PRC complaint process.

Democracy Docket: The Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the Supreme Court to allow President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting to go into effect before the upcoming midterms. The DOJ’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court Monday came days after a three-judge panel for the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court order blocking the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from implementing Trump’s … Read More

Unlike most federal agencies, the USPS does not publish the comments it receives in response to proposed rules, so here’s a compilation of public comments on the ballot mail rule.