Mail-in ballots: US court blocks Trump restrictions

A US federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to restrict mail-in ballots ahead of November's midterm elections.

District Court Judge Indira Talwani ruled on August 27 that it would be “practically impossible” for states to comply with what she called a “likely unconstitutional regulation” with the midterms little more than two months away.

Trump signed the order in March. Democratic-led states challenged it, arguing that the US Constitution gives states, not the federal government, broad authority over election administration.

The order would require lists of eligible voters to be compiled and would allow the US Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on those lists.

Talwani wrote that most plaintiff states had already ordered their mail ballots and that some were required by state law to send them to eligible voters as early as the following week.

The ruling came three days after the Supreme Court lifted a lower-court decision that had blocked the directive, leading Democratic states to file a fresh legal challenge.

Trump has long criticised mail-in voting and has repeatedly claimed it is vulnerable to fraud. Talwani said in her ruling that “the record continues to lack any evidence regarding fraudulent absentee or mail-in voting”.