AG Brown, coalition secure new court order blocking illegal USPS attack on mail-in voting
Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of 25 states have secured a preliminary injunction (PI) blocking illegal efforts by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that would have disrupted vote-by-mail systems ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The block would last indefinitely while the coalition’s lawsuit challenging the rule proceeds. The administration is expected to appeal the order.
The order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts blocks USPS from requiring states to obtain the federal government’s approval of new ballot and return-envelope designs, register for a new USPS portal for tracking voter information (which is not yet operational), input information for each of their state’s mail voters into the portal, and comply with other provisions.
“As the court previously said, states’ compliance with this illegal order would be ‘practically impossible’ before the November elections given the unprecedented demands it would put on state and local elections officials,” Brown said. “The chaos that would cause is exactly what Trump wants. That’s why we continue to fight for a fair and properly administered election.”
On March 31, President Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to adopt new regulations that would prohibit USPS from transmitting mail ballots to voters who are not on a USPS-controlled list.
On August 21, USPS announced a new rule implementing the President’s demands that require states to register every voter who is eligible to vote by mail with USPS and tasking USPS with compiling the registered voters into state-specific lists. The rule also establishes new design requirements for the mail-in ballot envelopes created by states, which states are required to meet and get approved by USPS. Under the rule, USPS will not deliver ballots to voters who do not appear on the USPS-generated lists and will not deliver ballots in envelopes that fail to comply with the rule’s new standards.
On August 26, Brown co-led a coalition of 25 states in filing a lawsuit to block the unlawful rule. On August 28, the court granted the coalition’s request for a temporary restraining order, finding that compliance with the rule before the November elections was “practically impossible” and that it created a significant risk of disenfranchisement.
With the November general election near, the coalition argued the rule inflicts significant, irreparable harm on states by imposing burdensome mail voting requirements that risk disenfranchising eligible voters. The coalition argues that USPS’s rule upends successful, longstanding vote-by-mail procedures and violates federal statutes and the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections.
Brown was joined in filing this lawsuit, which he co-led with the attorneys general of California, and Nevada, by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
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