Federal judge blocks Trump administration rule restricting mail ballots

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction on September 4 blocking the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing a rule that would have let it refuse delivery of mail ballots that did not meet new federal requirements in time for the November election.

The rule was the Postal Service’s attempt to implement an executive order President Trump signed on March 31 titled “Ensuring Citizen Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” It required states to follow new mail ballot envelope design guidelines, place a unique bar code on every ballot, and upload advance voter lists to a federal portal. Ballots that did not comply could have been refused delivery.

The case, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump (case details), was brought by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the national League of Women Voters, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, the U.S. Vote Foundation, OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, joined by 24 Democratic-led states. The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, the Legal Defense Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, and LatinoJustice PRLDEF.

Talwani first issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on August 27, a day after the Postal Service published its final rule, then heard arguments on a longer-lasting injunction on September 3. At that hearing, she said the case was not “an intellectual puzzle game” but a matter of “people’s right to vote.”

Alabama was the only state to tell the court it could likely comply with the rule’s requirements before November. Election officials from other states told the court compliance was not possible on that timeline, since most states had already finalized ballot printing and mailing plans, with some required by state law to begin sending ballots within days.

The Justice Department has separately asked the Supreme Court to lift the block on the rule. In a filing from Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the government argued the lower court’s order “risks sowing confusion and chaos” and created a “grave risk” that unprepared states could limit voters’ access to mail ballots. The government described the rule’s changes as “modest” and said they simply converted “longstanding recommendations” into requirements.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said of the administration’s Supreme Court filings that Trump “is asking the Supreme Court to take a huge leap to destroy the precious integrity of the American electoral process.”

About 47 million Americans voted by mail in the 2024 election, according to figures cited in the litigation. Mail voting has skewed more Democratic than Republican in recent elections: about 37 percent of Democrats and 24 percent of Republicans reported voting by mail in 2024, according to the same court filings.

North Carolina, whose ballot mailing deadline fell the day after Talwani’s initial restraining order, was the first state to announce that its existing envelope design had been approved by the Postal Service under the prior rules. Alabama’s ballot mailing deadline follows on September 9.

The preliminary injunction is set to remain in effect through the November 3 midterm election unless a higher court intervenes.