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🇦🇷 Argentina /Elections & Politics

Trump presses Supreme Court to impose new mail-voting rules before November elections

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • The Trump administration filed its third emergency appeal in just over two weeks, asking the Supreme Court to revive new Postal Service rules for mail-in voting.
  • The rules require standardized envelopes, intelligent barcodes, prior USPS approval of designs and voter information in an agency portal.
  • The administration says the rules target fraud and mail processing, while states and organizations challenging them say the federal government is intruding on state election powers.

The Trump administration has returned to the Supreme Court with a third emergency appeal in just over two weeks, seeking to restore new U.S. Postal Service requirements for mail-in ballots before the November elections.

The dispute centers on the Ballot Mail for Federal Elections rule. It requires standardized envelopes, intelligent barcodes, prior USPS approval of envelope designs and the registration of voter information in an agency electronic portal.

The White House says the requirements fall within the Postal Service’s authority and would help prevent fraud and organize mail processing. States and organizations challenging the rule argue that the federal government is moving into responsibilities reserved for state election authorities.

Solicitor General John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to suspend a decision issued on Sept. 4 by federal judge Indira Talwani. The administration argues that Congress gave USPS authority over the collection, sorting, transportation and delivery of mail, including aspects of envelope design and processing.

The government also says the rules do not change who can vote or how elections are administered. In its view, states would continue to decide voter eligibility, while USPS would determine which mail could be processed through its system. “The rule is intended to facilitate enforcement of federal law, reduce the risk of fraud and help protect the integrity of federal elections with respect to the narrow but important role played by the Postal Service,” Sauer wrote in the appeal.

The conflict followed Trump’s March 31 executive order, Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections. The order sought to add citizenship-verification mechanisms for determining which voters could receive mail ballots, using information from a Department of Homeland Security database. USPS approved the resulting regulation, which took effect Aug. 21, before Talwani blocked its application.

The rule is intended to facilitate enforcement of federal law, reduce the risk of fraud and help protect the integrity of federal elections with respect to the narrow but important role played by the Postal Service.

· John SauerThe solicitor general presented the administration’s rationale for the USPS rules in its Supreme Court appeal.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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