So here we are again: the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Sunday for an immediate administrative stay and a broader stay of a Massachusetts federal-court injunction blocking new U.S. Postal Service requirements for mail ballots. Nothing says confidence in election administration like trying to rewire the plumbing after the water is already running.
The government’s filing says the Postal Service rule would require federal-election ballot envelopes to carry specified design features and unique barcodes; it would also require state election officials to submit envelope designs and voter-specific mailing data to USPS. The filing further says Judge Indira Talwani’s September 4 preliminary injunction bars USPS from treating those requirements as mandatory or verifying compliance before accepting ballot mail. That is the government’s account in its emergency application.
The timing has all the elegance of a seagull stealing your fried clams: according to Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s filing, North Carolina has already begun mailing ballots, Alabama is scheduled to start September 9, and at least five more states are due to begin the following week. The administration argues that leaving the injunction in place makes compliance voluntary and risks confusion; election officials challenging the rule have said the late change cannot be implemented in time without disrupting voting. The official application lays out the administration’s position. Associated Press reporting documents the competing position of election officials and voting-rights groups.
AP reports this is the administration’s third request for Supreme Court intervention in the dispute. For the rest of us, that means another high-stakes emergency fight over who gets to change mail-voting procedures, and when, while actual ballots are already being sent. Real smooth operation, chief. Like trying to assemble a proper Italian sub in the breakdown lane with the CB squawking and half the onions rolling under the car.
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Featured image: John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse September 2024.jpg by 4300streetcar, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
