US midterms begin amid chaos over mail-voting crackdown

The US midterm elections opened Friday with ballots already beginning to go out, yet voters and election officials still do not know which rules will govern millions of mail-in votes. North Carolina became the first state authorized to send ballots, formally starting an election season that ends on November 3 and will decide control of Congress for the final two years of Donald Trump’s term.

Trump is asking the Supreme Court to restore restrictions on how states handle mail ballots after a federal judge blocked his plan. Judge Indira Talwani extended that temporary block on Friday, warning that hurried changes could cause widespread disruption. “We’re not playing an intellectual puzzle game,” Talwani reportedly told a lawyer defending the restrictions. “We’re talking about people’s right to vote.” The administration is expected to appeal her order.

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We’re not playing an intellectual puzzle game. We’re talking about people’s right to vote.

Trump’s March executive order would require states to provide the US Postal Service with lists of eligible mail voters through a new federal portal. Ballot envelopes would also need individual barcodes and other design features, while USPS would gain authority to reject mailings that did not meet its requirements. The administration says the measures would protect election integrity, though the article says it has offered no evidence of significant fraud through mail voting.

The dispute has intensified because voting rules already differ sharply among states. Some send ballots automatically, while others require voters to request them. Identification rules, return deadlines and procedures for counting late-arriving ballots also vary. Whistleblowers allege that a new Postal Service verification system was rushed and inadequately tested, potentially delaying or disqualifying entire batches of ballots because of a single barcode problem. Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket, said, “The states set the time, place and manner of elections in this country, not the president.”

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The states set the time, place and manner of elections in this country, not the president.