Supreme Court blocks Trump mail ballot plan; other federal election efforts continue

The Supreme Court this week ended President Donald Trump's attempt to require a sweeping overhaul of mail voting processes for the November midterms, a plan election officials said could not be implemented on the available timeline. The rejected order would have forced the Postal Service to deliver ballots only from states meeting new federal requirements.

Republican attorneys general from 23 states had backed the Trump plan in court. Yet election officials in at least half of those states told courts they could not comply in time, and some local offices received no guidance on how to prepare. In several states, officials were instructed to operate as if the rules would not take effect this year.

“Much of the litigation is, at this point, pure theater.”

"Much of the litigation is, at this point, pure theater," said Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, reflecting a widespread view among administrators that the plan was never realistic.

Separate federal efforts remain active. The Department of Justice has ordered officials in more than two dozen states to preserve records from the 2024 election as part of a push to obtain detailed voter data, despite repeated court losses. The Department of Homeland Security has launched its own probe to identify noncitizens on state voter rolls, an effort a federal whistleblower described as rushed and error-prone.

Trump continues to claim falsely that mail ballots are corrupt, that noncitizens are abundant on voter lists, and that Democratic fraud is widespread. After the Court's ruling, he attacked the justices for lacking the "courage necessary to save our America." Election officials say they are prepared to run a safe, secure election under existing state authority.