Supreme Court blocks Trump mail-in voting rules before midterms

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's request to let the U.S. Postal Service enforce new mail-in voting rules ahead of the November midterm elections.5,1 The order was unsigned and kept existing postal voting rules in place.2,1 The proposed USPS rules would have required federal ballot mail to be sent in envelopes bearing an election-mail logo, capable of being scanned by high-speed equipment, and carrying a barcode unique to each voter.1

State and local election officials would also have been required to submit envelope designs to the Postal Service for review and upload basic voter information to an online USPS portal.1 Mailings that failed to comply would not have been accepted and would have been returned to election officials to correct and resubmit.1 Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion saying there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority.1

Kavanaugh nevertheless argued that applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement it before the elections.1 Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the order.1 President Donald Trump called the ruling a big loss for Republicans and Americans and said it would make cheating easier.7,1

Trump wrote that Republicans got a bad decision from the Supreme Court and called the mail-in voting system a laughing stock all over the world.1 Trump praised Alito and Thomas as legends.1 Attorney General Todd Blanche said Trump is very frustrated with the Supreme Court justices over the mail ballot ruling and has every right to voice his concerns.6,3

Blanche said the administration will comply with the Supreme Court's decision.8,5 Blanche said the ruling will not impact other efforts to combat voter fraud.6 A Brookings Institute analysis found four cases of mail voter fraud for every 10 million ballots cast in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022.7