US midterms open amid chaos over mail-voting crackdown

America’s midterm elections opened in a fog of uncertainty. Ballots are already being sent in North Carolina, yet voters and election officials still do not know which rules will govern millions of mail-in ballots.

President Donald Trump is asking the courts to revive sweeping restrictions on how those ballots are handled. His March executive order would require states to submit lists of eligible mail voters through a new federal portal. Ballot envelopes would also need individual barcodes and other design features, and the US Postal Service would have power to reject mailings that did not meet its requirements.

A federal judge on Friday extended her temporary block on the plan. The decision came a day after Judge Indira Talwani warned 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 to the Supreme Court.

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

The dispute has been compounded by whistleblower allegations that a new Postal Service verification system was rushed and inadequately tested. Those allegations say a single barcode problem could delay or even disqualify entire batches of ballots. The administration says its proposed rules would protect election integrity, although the article says it has produced no evidence of significant fraud through mail voting. Trump has repeatedly criticized mail voting as corrupt while using it himself, including in Florida’s Republican primary the previous month.

The uncertainty adds another layer to a voting system that already varies widely among states. Some automatically send ballots to registered voters, while others require requests. Identification rules, return deadlines and procedures for counting late-arriving ballots also differ. “The states set the time, place and manner of elections in this country, not the president,” Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket, said on his YouTube show.

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