Judge Indefinitely Blocks Trump Mail-Ballot Rules 60 Days Before Election
Updated
Updated · PBS NewsHour · Sep 4
Judge Indefinitely Blocks Trump Mail-Ballot Rules 60 Days Before Election
3 articles · Updated · PBS NewsHour · Sep 4
Summary
A Boston federal judge converted last week’s temporary block into an indefinite injunction, barring the Trump administration from enforcing new mail-ballot restrictions as states begin sending ballots.
Judge Indira Talwani said the USPS-backed rules likely violate the Constitution’s Elections Clause and federal postal statutes by overriding state election authority and conditioning ballot delivery on new federal requirements.
The blocked plan would have required scannable ballot envelopes and voter-eligibility lists, and a whistleblower complaint had warned USPS could reject batches of up to 10,000 ballots over a single typographical error.
North Carolina mailed 1,380 ballots on Friday and election officials there said they are following state law, not the federal rules; Becker said no state has voluntarily adopted the new requirements.
The injunction replaces the earlier temporary restraining order, forcing the Trump administration to renew its appeals even as ballot printing and mail voting are already underway nationwide.