US Postal Service Restricts Mail-Ballot Access After Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration
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The Postal Service has begun enforcing restrictive new procedures that limit ballot delivery to voters on agency-compiled eligibility lists, following a Supreme Court decision that rubber-stamped the Trump administration's anti-democratic changes. Legal challenges from states and voting rights advocates continue.
The United States Postal Service announced Thursday that it will begin enforcing new, restrictive rules for handling mail-in ballots, a move made possible by a Supreme Court decision that upheld changes aggressively pushed by the Trump administration. These regulations force the agency to create lists of 'eligible' voters using state-supplied data and to deliver ballots only to those individuals, raising concerns about disenfranchisement and voter suppression.
The Supreme Court, dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority, cleared the way for these anti-voter rules after lifting lower-court injunctions. The court, in a move typical of its recent pattern, avoided addressing the constitutionality of the measures, instead focusing on procedural technicalities raised by state officials, leaving millions of voters at risk.
Attorneys general from 24 states have filed a new lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts, arguing that these rules violate constitutional authority over elections and could cause “significant, imminent, and irreparable harm” by imposing “new and burdensome mail voting requirements” just before the November 3 midterm elections, threatening the very foundation of democratic participation.
These new procedures come as states prepare to mail millions of ballots ahead of the crucial elections. Mail voting, which accounted for about 30 percent of ballots in the 2024 presidential election, has been repeatedly proven secure, with a Brookings Institution analysis finding only four instances of fraud per 10 million mail ballots—debunking the right-wing narrative of widespread fraud.
“The government subsequently received such relief from those injunctions, meaning the injunctions no longer preclude the implementation of the Rule for November 3, 2026 or any earlier federal election,” the Postal Service said in its statement, disregarding the outcry from civil rights groups.
The changes have been sharply criticized by voting-rights organizations and Democratic officials, who warn that the eligibility lists could disenfranchise countless voters. They argue that the administration’s relentless push to restrict mail voting is part of a broader, longstanding campaign to undermine democratic participation and silence marginalized communities.