US judge extends block on Trump order to restrict mail-in voting

Federal judge Indira Talwani has extended her prohibition against the US Postal Service implementing President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at restricting mail-in voting for the midterms, posing another significant hurdle for the administration as the first states begin distributing mail ballots. This preliminary injunction supersedes a temporary order granted by Talwani, blocking the USPS plan.

The Trump administration has already petitioned the Supreme Court to lift Talwani's temporary order and will likely appeal her current ruling as well. With limited time remaining to make substantial changes in voting procedures, the legal battle could have major consequences for this year's elections, which hinge on the control of Congress.

A significant portion of American voters, nearly one-third, participate in mail ballots, and election officials contend there is insufficient time to revise their systems to align with the new postal service directives. Talwani, appointed by Barack Obama, emphasized the tight timeline in her ruling, stating that the states are obligated under state law to dispatch millions of ballots to voters following a specific schedule, making it impossible to make such last-minute adjustments and guaranteeing substantial disenfranchisement for eligible voters.

The White House has not yet commented on the matter. The order permits states to adopt the new system voluntarily, but so far, not a single state has announced its decision to do so. Despite often using mail ballots himself, President Trump has persistently sought to limit mail voting, falsely attributing the 2020 election loss to mail balloting and spreading unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

However, he has thus far failed to alter the established voting procedure. An initial executive order issued by Trump last year to change election rules, including the requirement for voters to present documentary proof of citizenship to register, was blocked by federal judges, who ruled that the constitution grants states (and, in certain instances, Congress) the authority to set voting procedures, not the president.

Following Trump's issuance of his mail voting executive order in March, both Democrats and voting rights groups filed multiple lawsuits. Two of these cases reached Talwani, who initially placed a hold on the order in June, preventing its implementation until after November. However, the Supreme Court overturned this order last month, without definitively declaring the legality of Trump's move but determining that the lawsuits were filed prematurely before the US Postal Service released its rule on how it would implement the order.

The rule was published just before the Supreme Court's ruling, and the plaintiffs subsequently refiled their suits.