TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – The battle over new rules for voting by mail continues to play out in court with midterm elections just nine weeks away.
A federal judge in Boston issued a two week stay halting President Trump’s executive order on mail in ballots on Thursday. That decision was appealed by the Trump administration on Friday.
“That’s a 14 day stay that gets us to the point of no return. Frankly we’re there already,” Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said.
Earley said the new postal service rules primarily deal with envelopes used to mail out and return ballots and the bar codes that are used to track them.
Earley said Leon County is compliant with most of the rules already, but it’ll be impossible for some counties to pivot to new envelopes this quickly if the Executive Order sticks.
“For many counties in Florida and many states, it would be almost impossible for them at this point, this late in time, to comply with the rule,” Early said.
Florida’s mail ballots are scheduled to begin going out to voters on Sept. 24.
“I don’t think the courts are going to put this into place,” Earley said. “I think the courts will realize that this will disenfranchise tens of thousands, if not potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of voters. So, I really, really don’t think this is going to have any impact in this election, except cause a lot of confusion.”
The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the case next, but it could end up back before the Supreme Court.
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