Democratic-led states and voting rights groups on Wednesday renewed legal efforts to halt the USPS mail-in voting rule before ballots go out for the November congressional elections, an action tied to an order signed by former President Donald Trump.
Attorneys general from 23 states and the District of Columbia, joined by Pennsylvania’s governor, filed a fresh lawsuit in federal court in Boston two days after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an earlier injunction they had secured. The justices ruled the states acted prematurely because the U.S. Postal Service had not yet finalized its regulation at the time of the initial suit.
They had brought that prior case before USPS completed the rule that would carry out the March order from the Republican former president targeting mail-in ballots.
USPS issued the final rule on Friday, despite a separate court order still in place that had sought to prevent the agency from advancing the plan.
Until Wednesday, implementation was paused by a different injunction from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in a related case filed by voting rights organizations. At the administration’s request, Talwani vacated that order shortly after the states filed their new lawsuit.
The judge said her injunction could not stand in light of the Supreme Court’s decision, noting it had been issued before USPS finalized the regulation, despite concerns about “what chaos may be unleashed as litigation is pending.”
The voting rights groups quickly submitted a revised complaint and, together with the states, asked Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, to promptly issue a temporary restraining order restoring the block on the USPS rule.
Sophia Lin Lakin of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that the regulation “threatens access to the ballot and treats voters as collateral damage.”
Talwani ordered the administration to respond to the restraining order requests by midday Thursday and set a September 3 hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would pause the rule indefinitely.
What the USPS mail-in voting rule requires
Under the regulation, states must provide USPS with lists of mail ballot recipients, and all outbound and return ballot envelopes must include unique barcodes. The Postal Service may decline to deliver ballots that do not meet these standards or that are linked to voters not on the provided lists.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said the policy would sow confusion, add costs and create unacceptable risks for voters ahead of Election Day, and that her office is going to court to stop it.
Hawaiʻi election officials have encouraged voters who plan to vote by mail to track deadlines and follow envelope instructions closely. Any federal court decision in the coming days could shape mail ballot processing nationwide as November approaches.
