Trump Administration’s Mail-In Ballot Scheme Dealt Another Blow
On Sunday, the Trump administration once again appealed to the Supreme Court to intervene in its scheme to restrict the distribution of mail-in ballots through the United States Postal Service. This new appeal came days after Judge Indira Talwani issued a new preliminary injunction that “barred the Trump administration from requiring states to comply with provisions of the [USPS] rule indefinitely while the states’ challenge continues.” Trump’s Solicitor General, John Sauer on Sunday told the Court that Talwani’s order “nullif[ies] the Postal Service’s efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud.” In his filing, Sauer warned, “Ballots have already begun to be mailed in North Carolina, and more States will begin the mailing process as the injunction remains in place — including Alabama on September 9 and at least five States the week of September 13.” He added, “Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them.”
While the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legality of the USPS mail-in ballot rule, on Thursday, the Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals issued the Trump administration a new blow by declining to put Talwani’s order blocking the rule on hold. In its nine-page opinion, the appeals court ruled that “the Final [USPS] Rule is likely a regulation of the manner of holding elections for members of Congress, which the Elections Clause of the Constitution assigns to the States and Congress, and not to an executive agency, such as the Postal Service, acting without congressional authorization.” The three-judge panel further ruled, “Appellants have not made a strong showing that the district court erred in determining that the Final Rule is likely unlawful.”
On Wednesday and Thursday this week, Donald Trump headlined a two-day “Trump-a-palooza” Republican convention purportedly designed to turn out Republican voters ahead of the November midterm elections. Despite Trump’s claim that the American Airlines Center in Dallas was “packed” with “lines out the door,” the convention hall reportedly had thousands of empty seats, including the entire upper section of the arena.
