Democratic states launch new legal battle over Trump’s mail voting order

A coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia filed a new lawsuit on Wednesday challenging the U.S. Postal Service’s finalized anti-mail voting rule, which President Donald Trump ordered.

The lawsuit is the latest challenge on the merits of the USPS rule, which was officially published today. It comes after the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a fleeting win earlier this week when it lifted a block on his executive order in a similar lawsuit despite pending legal challenges.

The high court only said it was too early for Democratic challengers in the case to sue because the rule had not yet been finalized. The justices made no determination on whether Trump’s order or the USPS’s implementation of it was legal.

In Wednesday’s suit, the Democratic states argued the new USPS rule “violates the Constitution and federal statutes many times over” and “inflicts significant, imminent, and irreparable harm” by “imposing new and burdensome mail voting requirements, enforced by USPS interception of non-conforming ballot mail, and doing so mere months before a nationwide election.”

The USPS rule would force states to meet new envelope design requirements and submit data on who is voting by mail into a new government portal. If states don’t comply with the standards, USPS said ballots in those states will not be processed.  

The administration has claimed the rule changes are “modest” and that USPS will not play a role in determining who is eligible to cast a vote in this November’s pivotal midterm election.

But the states contend Trump’s own words on social media demonstrate he wants to eliminate mail voting for partisan reasons.

“One need not look further than the White House to explain USPS’s unprecedented and unlawful conduct. President Trump has long opposed mail voting, expressing that it would ‘LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY.’  Since reassuming office, the President has aimed to—in his words— ‘get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,’” they wrote in the filing.

Despite repeatedly claiming mail votes are not secure, Trump, himself, voted by mail in the Florida Republican primary this month and in several past elections.

Wednesday’s lawsuit was filed by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington, as well as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.