Overview
- U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued a nationwide injunction this week stopping the USPS from implementing a proposed rule that would refuse to deliver some mail ballots, finding it breaches a 2021 settlement that requires the agency to prioritize and monitor Election Mail.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in Watson v. RNC that federal election-day statutes do not require ballots to be received by Election Day, leaving state ‘grace periods’ intact for counting ballots postmarked on Election Day.
- The Postal Service proposal, created to carry out the president’s March executive order, would have required states to provide lists of mail voters, use individualized barcodes and new envelope standards, and allow refusal of delivery for noncompliant ballots.
- The administration has appealed lower-court rulings and asked judges to lift injunctions quickly while Republican groups press separate state lawsuits seeking tighter rules on late-arriving mail ballots and federal lists of voters.
- Voting-rights and civil-rights groups say the rule would have created unlawful barriers that disproportionately harm rural, Tribal, military and overseas voters and election officials warn the dispute will keep legal fights active through the November midterms.