New York state leaders and voting rights groups are reacting after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied the Trump administration from implementing a new U.S. Postal Service rule that would have changed mail voting for the November elections.
The rule requires state election offices to supply names and addresses of registered voters to USPS.
It also requires for mail-in ballots to have specific barcodes on envelopes.
Without those codes, USPS will not deliver the ballots to voters.
In the high court’s brief, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing: “State and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before elections.”
This ruling keeps in place a lower court’s ruling.
It’s after a coalition of states and multiple voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters, sued to keep the USPS rule from being implemented.
“Very excited to see that that was shut down at least through the midterm elections in November,” said Erica Smitka, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New York State. “Potentially, there could be further legal litigation post the November election, but even if we don’t see it surrounding this issue, I expect that we will see it – I expect that this is just, you know, one of many attempts to kind of change how voters interact with our election system and really change how people access the ballot. That’s just based on what we’ve seen already from our current administration.”
The Legal Defense Fund is representing some of the plaintiffs in the case.
“The case will continue, but I think what is clear from the court’s decision from the harm to clients is that the President doesn’t have a blank check to rewrite election rules,” said John Cusick, assistant counsel of the Legal Defense Fund. “Those are up to Congress and the states.”
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a statement saying in part: “Voters should never have to wonder whether a ballot they legally cast will be counted because the federal government suddenly changes the rules.”
On social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump said in part: “It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the radical left “Dumocrats,” on mail-in ballots a much easier thing to do.”
Trump and some Republicans have cast wide doubt on the U.S. mail voting system since Trump lost the 2020 election, but it’s been noted by several voting rights groups and publications, including Politico that Trump uses mail voting himself.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes as Tuesday marks National Voter Registration Day.
New York Rep. Joe Morelle spoke to the national media as the first midterm mail-in ballots went out in the mail.
“We are winning every single day in the courts and as I said in the hearts and minds of Americans who see right in front of them what’s happening,” said Morelle. “So, people should have confidence. People should vote early.”
At the direction of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Morelle has been leading a voter-protection effort including assessing national threats, congressional oversight, and public education.
In a separate development related to elections, a whistleblower has made new allegations that U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services officials have directed personnel to use voter registration and citizenship data to identify and investigate purported noncitizen voters, including naturalized U.S. citizens.
In a statement, Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters of the United States, said in part: ““If these reports are true, this is not merely alarming. It is a five-alarm fire for American democracy. Allegations that federal workers were pressured to fabricate evidence and falsely frame citizens as criminals strike at the heart of the Constitution and the rule of law.”