{"id":836751,"date":"2026-09-05T00:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T00:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836751\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T00:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T00:12:10","slug":"judge-again-blocks-trumps-effort-to-restrict-mail-voting-as-ballots-start-going-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836751\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge again blocks Trump\u2019s effort to restrict mail voting as ballots start going out"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a bid by President Donald Trump for the U.S. Postal Service to exert control over mail-in voting<\/a> ahead of the midterm elections<\/a> as one state begins mailing out ballots.<\/p>\n

Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who previously blocked a related effort on mail voting, found the new Postal Service rule dictating how mail-in ballots can be sent is likely unlawful and unconstitutional, prompting her to issue a preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n

The rushed time frame being pushed by the administration will make voter disenfranchisement \u201cpractically inevitable\u201d if the rule is allowed to stay in place, the judge found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccourt finds, on one side, that immediate implementation of the Final Rule issued less than seventy days before the November 2026 election threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail,\u201d while \u201con the other side, that the record includes no evidence relating to fraudulent mail voting to support the rushed implementation of the Final Rule,\u201d Talwani wrote.<\/p>\n

She rejected the Justice Department\u2019s request that she pause her order while the administration appeals, and noted that her ruling does not bar states that want to follow the new rules from doing do.<\/p>\n

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

Talwani also said the ruling applies only to the midterms, since \u201cthe Final Rule imposes no irreparable harm as to later elections and judicial challenges may be addressed in the normal course.\u201d<\/p>\n

The action comes a day after the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court <\/a>to override a temporary order<\/a> issued by Talwani last week halting the rule.<\/p>\n

In that ruling<\/a>, the judge sided with states and voting rights groups that argued the Postal Service rule unlawfully usurped states\u2019 power to regulate their own elections \u2014 and left them facing an \u201cimpossible\u201d timeline to comply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the Final Rule, the USPS is refusing to send mail ballots to eligible voters unless States or local election officials submit their mail ballot envelopes and return envelopes and receive advance approval from the USPS without regard to impending deadlines for the November 3, 2026 election,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

It also \u201crequires elections officials to create accounts for a new electronic portal, certify that they have received approval regarding the mail ballot design, and thereafter upload to the USPS portal each voter\u2019s information, including name, address, and a unique intelligent mail barcode,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the record presently before the court, Plaintiff States face irreparable harm where they are required to comply with a likely unconstitutional regulation for which compliance is practically impossible as to the 2026 midterm elections, now little more than two months away,\u201d Talwani wrote.<\/p>\n

The states \u201chave neither time nor funds to design new mail ballots, seek approval of the new designs, order production of mail ballots, update their own election management systems, train election officials to use the USPS portal, and upload citizen data to the portal, all before the midterms,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

North Carolina began sending out ballots <\/a>Friday, as required by state law. State Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, said in a statement Thursday that if the Supreme Court sides with the administration, it would \u201cthrow our election into chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ballots are printed, the process is underway, and North Carolinians deserve a lawful and orderly election,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

In his filing to the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer argued it was Talwani and not the rush to implement the directive that\u2019s causing \u201cconfusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

While her order allowed states that want to follow the new requirement to do so, that \u201crisks sowing confusion and chaos because it makes those preparatory steps voluntary, and not mandatory,\u201d Sauer wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThus, if the order is eventually stayed and the rule takes effect for this year\u2019s elections \u2014 as should occur, there is a grave risk that States may not have taken the necessary steps to comply due to the false latitude allowed by the court\u2019s improper order, potentially depriving those States\u2019 citizens of the ability to vote by mail,\u201d Sauer added.<\/p>\n

The rule change came about after an executive order <\/a>issued by President Donald Trump on March 31 titled \u201cEnsuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talwani issued an earlier order in a related case barring the rule from going into effect, but it was reversed last month by the Supreme Court, <\/a>which found the rule had not yet been finalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell,\u201d the court said in an unsigned 6-3 ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rule was subsequently finalized late last month.<\/p>\n

In his filing to the high court this week, Sauer argued the changes that are being implemented are \u201cmodest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a bid by President Donald Trump for the U.S. Postal Service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-836751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}