Judge again halts Postal Service mail ballot plan as Trump administration seeks Supreme Court relief
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administration → halt → relief
- A federal judge again blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing President Trump’s sweeping new mail ballot rules.
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judge → block → rules
California has led the legal charge against the rules, arguing they could cause chaos and disenfranchise millions of voters.
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they → lead → voters
- Judge Indira Talwani’s ruling follows a whistleblower’s claims that USPS is rushing out untested and flawed computer systems to implement the new rules.
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USPS → follow → rules
A federal judge again blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enacting President Trump’s sweeping new mail ballot rules for the November election, finding that the Postal Service lacks such authority over elections and that neither it nor states such as California are capable of implementing the changes without causing chaos and disenfranchising voters.
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it → block → voters
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani noted that election officials from across the country told the court that it is “likely impossible” to comply with the rules, which “makes disenfranchisement more than likely, if not probable” if the Postal Service were to proceed with them.
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Service → note → them
The Trump administration and 12 Republican-led states that are supportive of the new Postal Service rules quickly appealed the Friday decision that night to the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.
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that → lead → Appeals
Talwani’s order — her latest of several halting the plan this summer — came after a Postal Service whistleblower alleged the agency’s new computer systems for the project are fundamentally flawed, a top Postal Service official acknowledged a key online portal was unfinished and the Trump administration filed an emergency petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the plans to proceed anyway.
All this unfolded this week as some of the first mail ballots of the election cycle started to go out.
The new rules — which Trump required in a March executive order — would require states to submit complete voter lists to the Postal Service and to adopt new ballot envelopes with individualized voter bar codes designed by the Postal Service, and empower the Postal Service to reject any mail ballots that don’t match those lists.
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that → halt → lists
Trump’s executive order also required the Department of Homeland Security to develop its own lists of eligible citizen voters, ostensibly to be compared against the state lists.
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order → require → lists
Trump has said the changes are necessary to combat widespread voter fraud, including by noncitizens, though independent election experts say there is no evidence that such fraud exists in large numbers.
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fraud → say → numbers
The effort is part of the implementation of President Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting and has been temporarily halted by a federal judge.
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effort → limit → judge
The ruling is being appealed by the administration and the directive may ultimately end up back before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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directive → appeal → Court
Leading Democrats and elections officials in California and other states say the new rules constitute an unlawful federal overreach into state-run elections and a thinly veiled effort by the Trump administration to suppress the vote in a midterm election the GOP is expected to lose.
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GOP → lead → election
Talwani, an appointee of President Obama, agreed, finding that the states and voting rights groups are likely to succeed in their claims that the U.S. Constitution reserves the right to regulate elections to the states and Congress — not the executive branch.
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Constitution → agree → states
Talwani issued her order after holding a contentious hearing in federal court in Boston on Thursday, where she questioned the Postal Service and the dozen conservative-led states supporting it on their ability to implement the changes in time for the Nov. 3 elections.
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she → issue → elections
She also heard from California, other liberal-led states and voting rights groups that it would be impossible.
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it → hear → California
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, whose office is helping lead the states’ challenge, hailed Talwani’s order as a crucial reprieve.
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office → help → reprieve
“We’ve now secured longer-term relief that will keep the USPS changes blocked while our case moves forward,” Bonta said in a statement to The Times.
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Bonta → secure → Times
“We will continue to take all steps to stop the Trump Administration from trampling on voting rights and restricting mail voting.”
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We → continue → voting
Bonta’s office also criticized Department of Justice attorneys for rushing to the Supreme Court before Talwani could issue her order or the 1st Circuit Court could weigh in on an appeal the department had already filed on the matter.
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department → criticize → matter
Walter Garcia, a Bonta spokesperson, said the Justice Department had “flouted standard procedural rules” by approaching the high court before the lower courts had weighed in, despite the fact that the Postal Service acknowledged Thursday that it was not ready to launch its new portal.
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it → say → portal
“It defies common sense that they would seek emergency relief from the U.S. Supreme Court when USPS is unprepared to implement the rule now,” Garcia said.
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Garcia → defy → rule
State law requires that all registered voters be sent a ballot in the mail, and more than 80% of California voters have used those ballots to vote in recent elections.
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% → require → elections
President Trump has spent months waging an unusually aggressive campaign to reshape how states run elections.
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states → spend → elections
In its emergency petition to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration argued that an earlier temporary restraining order by Talwani to halt the new rules from taking effect was “baseless” and would cause “serious irreparable harm” to the federal government, states and voting public.
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order → argue → government
“To forestall those harms and protect the public interest, this Court should grant an immediate stay, making clear to States that they should begin efforts to comply if they have not done so already,” wrote Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer.
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Sauer → forestall → efforts
The swirl of litigation has created uncertainty around the Nov. 3 election.
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swirl → create → election
It also reflects the Trump administration’s desperate race to get the lower court orders lifted and the new rules implemented in time for that election — the rushed nature of which was a prime focus of the whistleblower.
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nature → reflect → whistleblower
The unidentified Postal Service employee alleged in a statement released Tuesday by congressional Democrats and submitted in court by Bonta’s office that the agency has been rushing to implement the changes — in defiance of an earlier court order — using “an entirely new and untested set of IT systems” that could cause “catastrophic problems” and disenfranchise millions of voters nationwide.
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that → allege → voters
The Postal Service in a statement Friday said that while its system was developed on an “accelerated schedule,” quality and security standards “were not compromised,” and the agency stands behind “both the rigor of our process and the resulting system.”
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agency → say → process
At Thursday’s hearing, Talwani appeared frustrated when a Justice Department attorney was unable to tell her the status of the portal.
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attorney → appear → portal
In a subsequent declaration hours later, Steven W. Monteith, the Postal Service’s chief customer and marketing officer, said officials were still making “refinements” to the portal, but anticipated being able to make it available “for voluntary use by sometime next week.”
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it → say → week
Talwani previously issued an order blocking the Postal Service changes from being implemented in California and more than 20 other states suing in June.
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Talwani → issue → June
The Trump administration appealed that decision to the 1st Circuit, which declined to lift it, and then on an emergency basis to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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which → appeal → Court
In early August, Talwani issued a second ruling for the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups, blocking the changes nationwide.
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Talwani → issue → changes
On Aug. 24, the Supreme Court set aside Talwani’s order in the states’ case, finding that the states’ challenge was essentially premature because the Postal Service had yet to formally initiate the changes or require state compliance.
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Service → set → compliance
However, the court explicitly noted that it was not reaching any conclusions as to the legality of the pending rules themselves.
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it → note → rules
“On that score, time will tell,” it said.
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it → tell → score
The states and voting rights groups promptly filed new lawsuits challenging the legality of the rules, which the Postal Service formally issued Aug. 21.
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Service → file → which
And it is in those cases that Talwani issued her ruling Friday.
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Talwani → issue → ruling
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
