Supreme Court Leaves Trump Mail Ballot Curbs on Hold as Midterm Voting Begins

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to allow President Donald Trump's mail ballot restrictions to take effect while the midterm elections are already under way, leaving states free to keep using the mailing procedures they have followed for years.

The brief order drew dissents from Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not apply during the midterms but signalled that he could side with the administration at a later stage.

The administration had asked the court to clear the way for the plan before the November contests that will decide control of Congress. The dispute carries wide consequences because close to a third of American voters cast their ballots by mail.

Under the proposal, states would have to adopt a single, uniform envelope design and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal. The Postal Service would be permitted to withhold delivery of ballots from states that failed to comply.

A whistleblower account warned that the postal system's requirements could leave millions of mail ballots undelivered, citing a portal that was not properly built and the risk that one bar code error could cause an entire batch of ballots to be discarded.

Democratic state officials and voting rights organisations challenged the plan in court, contending that the president lacks constitutional authority to set election rules in a way that would all but end mail voting on the eve of a major election. Lower courts agreed and blocked the plan, including through a preliminary injunction issued by a judge nominated by the president.

The administration appealed, arguing that federal oversight of the Postal Service allows it to set rules for handling mail ballots and that compliance was achievable. The government secured an early procedural win at the Supreme Court, but the justices pointedly left the legality of the plan undecided.

Election officials had said a complete overhaul could not be carried out in the weeks remaining before the midterms. Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin began sending mail ballots to voters in the past week while the new system was still not in operation.

Trump has long opposed mail voting and has falsely attributed his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden to the practice, even though he has frequently used that method himself, including this year.