Judge Deals Blow to Trump’s War on Mail-in Ballots

Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape US elections were dealt a second major blow this week when a federal judge ruled on Thursday that the president’s executive order restricting the delivery of mail-in ballots exceeds his authority.

In an executive order earlier this year, Trump, who has no authority over the administration of elections, demanded that states create “citizenship lists,” which would determine who gets to vote by mail. The order then stated that the United States Postal Service (USPS) would only be allowed to send ballots to and from voters on those lists.

USPS complied last month by issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking that would put in place the president’s scheme.

However, pointing out that Trump lacks the authority to order states to compile such lists and to direct the postal service to deliver only approved mail-in ballots, Massachusetts District Court Judge Indira Talwani blocked the administration from going forward with its attempt to influence the upcoming midterms in this way.

“No law enacted by Congress delegates authority to control mail-in voting to USPS,” she wrote in her 37-page ruling. “The voting-related guidance currently issued by USPS is not binding on the States, merely recommended. Accordingly, USPS lacks statutory authorization to promulgate any binding regulations on mail-in voting.”

Talwani’s decision, which also states that Trump’s attempts to “intimidate local election officials to use the necessarily incomplete Confirmed Citizenship Lists as a resource, lest they face criminal prosecution” are unlawful, is a major victory for the 23 states and the District of Columbia which brought the lawsuit.

While the administration will surely appeal the ruling, time is running out for the president to rig the election in this particular way because USPS would still have to finalize such a rule and give the states enough time to implement it.

In fact, according to the ruling, it is already too late. Talwani noted that the timing outlined in the executive order would provide “no allowance for Congress’s mandated procedure regarding USPS rulemaking.”

Of course, this won’t end the president’s pursuit of “nationalizing” US elections, i.e., allowing himself to put his thumb on the scale to benefit the GOP.

Trump has been trying very hard to get his hands on state voter lists. While many (although not all) Republican-controlled states have complied, most others have not. Instead, they have taken the administration to court and won.

On Wednesday, for example, an appeals court ruled in favor of Michigan and upheld the order of a lower court that blocks the Department of Justice from obtaining its voter rolls.

And on Monday, another district court judge declared that the administration cannot use a database containing the private information of US residents, including their Social Security numbers, to determine whether they are allowed to vote.

While Trump keeps losing, all of these cases show how relentless he is in his pursuit of more power to administer federal elections.

In light of his track record, i.e., trying to overturn the results of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden and falsely maintaining that he won, this should trouble all Americans – at least those who value democracy.