Supreme Court Order on Mail Voting Sparks 'Chaos' Warnings

The Supreme Court's decision giving preliminary approval to President Donald Trump's order restricting mail voting may not change a single election procedure for November's midterms, but it has already thrown into uncertainty the method nearly a third of the country uses to vote.

Rather than ruling Trump's order legal, the court said Monday it was too early for Democratic-run states to challenge it in June, when they persuaded a federal judge in Boston to freeze the order. That restarts the legal fight on a compressed timeline, with initial ballots due to North Carolina's overseas and military voters in just over a week, on September 4.

A second injunction barring the U.S. Postal Service from making changes to comply with Trump's directive remains in effect. The administration late Monday asked that the hold be removed and posted new regulations that would take effect Tuesday if cleared. The rule requires specific mail-ballot envelope formatting and an electronic system for states to identify mail voters to the Postal Service. States that don't comply risk their ballots not being sent.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani found Tuesday that the administration violated her injunction by formulating the rule but declined to sanction it while she weighs lifting her freeze.

In dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned the decision "needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections." David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation & Research called the outcome "complete chaos" and said compliance would be "impossible" this late.

Election officials in California, Nevada and elsewhere said there is no realistic way to meet the new requirements in days. Tammy Patrick of the Elections Center said no state currently runs elections the way the rule requires.

Trump has long sought to curtail mail voting, though he has voted by mail himself, and falsely blamed his 2020 loss on the practice. Legal experts say the Constitution's grant of election authority to states and Congress makes it unlikely his order will ultimately take effect, and opponents are already preparing new lawsuits.