Trump mail-in ballot curbs blocked by Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump's request to let his administration enforce new mail-in ballot restrictions before the November 3 midterm elections, leaving an order blocking the plan in place.

Only two of the six conservative justices on the nine-member court dissented. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, concurring with the majority, said Trump's plan may ultimately be legal, but that “state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”

Trump signed the executive order in March, saying without evidence that mail-in voting is vulnerable to fraud. The order would require lists of eligible voters and direct the US Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on those lists.

Democratic-led states challenged the order, arguing that the US Constitution gives states, not the federal government, broad control over election administration. A US appeals court had upheld a lower-court injunction blocking the plan before the administration went to the Supreme Court.

Several states, including North Carolina, have already begun sending mail-in ballots to voters. Officials from several states had warned that uncertainty over the plan was causing problems months before the vote. A Postal Service whistleblower also warned that millions of Americans may not receive ballots because postal systems had been assembled in what the whistleblower called a “sloppy and rushed manner.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the ruling that Trump's plan was unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union called the decision a “major win for voting rights, election integrity, and democracy.”

Trump has long criticized mail-in ballots but has used them himself, including when he voted by mail in Florida's Republican primary earlier this year. He has repeatedly linked mail-in voting to his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Democrat Joe Biden.