Trump administration asks Supreme Court for third time to restrict mail-in voting

The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for the third time to intervene over mail-in voting, seeking permission to enforce new restrictions in November’s congressional elections.

The request asks the justices to temporarily suspend a ruling issued Friday by federal judge Indira Talwani. She blocked a U.S. Postal Service regulation that would impose new requirements on the mailing and return of election ballots.

Under the regulation, state and local authorities would have to submit the designs of the envelopes used to send and return ballots to the Postal Service in advance. They would also have to enter the names, addresses and barcodes of voters receiving ballots into an electronic platform.

Talwani said that applying the changes less than 70 days before the November 3 elections could create confusion and deprive millions of Americans of their right to vote. She said states lacked the time and resources to redesign envelopes, obtain approval, update their systems, train election staff and gather voter data before the election.

The judge also said the administration had not provided evidence of widespread mail-in voting fraud to justify putting the measure into effect urgently. The restrictions stem from an executive order signed on March 31 to change how federal elections are conducted, an area traditionally organized by the states.

The new request comes as North Carolina has already begun mailing ballots for the midterm elections. Those elections will renew all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate. In an earlier decision, the Supreme Court rejected another Talwani ruling because the postal regulation had not yet received final approval, but it did not address the regulation’s legality.