Overview
- The Supreme Court on Monday refused the administration’s emergency request to lift injunctions, so the U.S. Postal Service rule will not take effect before the Nov. 3 midterms.
- Two federal judges — Indira Talwani in Massachusetts and Carl J. Nichols in Washington, D.C. — issued preliminary injunctions that found the rule likely exceeds USPS authority and would risk disenfranchising voters if rushed into use.
- The rule would force states to use USPS-approved envelope designs with machine-scannable features and unique barcodes and to upload voter-recipient lists to a new federal portal, with USPS able to reject noncompliant mailings.
- Courts and election officials cited practical and technical risks, including warnings from a USPS whistleblower and audits that the portal and barcode process were unready and could cause large-scale delivery failures.
- The Supreme Court’s action is temporary and procedural, so the underlying legal fight over federal authority versus state control of elections will continue through expedited appeals and further litigation.