Despite Supreme Court win, election officials say Trump’s attacks damaged faith in mail voting

After the U.S. Supreme Court shot down a postal rule at the center of President Donald Trump’s attack on mail voting Monday evening, Francisco Aguilar said he was “the most joyous person in America right now.”

But Aguilar’s joy was tempered with worry. Nevada’s secretary of state believes the Trump administration’s efforts have “absolutely” sapped voter confidence in mail voting.

After Trump signed an executive order in March, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) attempted to implement new restrictions based on the order.

A federal judge blocked USPS’s efforts earlier this month, and on Monday the Supreme Court declined to reverse that decision. That put an end — for now — to months of litigation and uncertainty, but not before it could rattle voters’ faith that they could safely vote by mail. 

“We’re glad that the Supreme Court did what was right, but there was also a period where real damage was done in the space of voter confusion, with people losing faith in the process,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former commissioner of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, at a press briefing Tuesday. 

On that same call, Norm Eisen, the executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund and a former Obama administration official, lamented “the constant churn and swirl that the president has created, the opposite of what every other president — irrespective of party — has attempted to inspire, which is confidence in voting [and an] assurance whoever you may vote for that your vote will be safe, free, and fair.”

“The incessant assaults and the attendant coverage runs a risk of confusing voters now because Donald Trump is the president who cried wolf,” Eisen added.

Officials are now working to restore that nicked confidence.

In Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt (R) held a press conference to reassure voters that “nothing has changed about voting by mail in Pennsylvania, and eligible Pennsylvanians who choose to vote by mail should have confidence that they can continue to do so safely and securely.”

Some Pennsylvania counties have started mailing out ballots, Schmidt added, “which is right on schedule with prior years.” 

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold reminded voters there Tuesday that they can track the status of their mail ballot by using the state’s “BallotTrax” service to get email or text updates. 

And in Nevada, Aguilar’s office has “a pretty aggressive communication campaign,” he said. 

“We’re partnering with the Nevada Broadcasters Association to get commercials out on broadcast TV,” Aguilar said. “We are doing a digital buy to hit people in digital places, but also utilizing our direct-to-fax messaging program and doing it in greater force to remind people that our elections are safe, secure, and accessible, and everybody that is eligible has the fundamental right to vote.”

While the Supreme Court’s decision came as a relief, voting rights groups cautioned that the fight over federal interference in this year’s election is far from over. 

“This administration will keep testing every avenue to manipulate our elections and sow doubt in results [Trump] doesn’t like,” said Voting Rights Lab CEO Samantha Tarazi in a statement. “Today is yet another example of President Trump’s extreme elections agenda losing in the courts and with the American people. The bottom line is simple: States run our elections — not the president.”

Some anti-voting activists with ties to the Trump administration have pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision to call on the president to declare a national emergency ahead of Election Day — an unlawful, but dangerous, suggestion that could trigger a constitutional crisis. 

In the wake of the Supreme Court loss, Hovland predicted the White House would redouble its more direct — and egregious — efforts to meddle in the midterms. 

“So much of this is part of a broader effort by the administration to undermine faith and confidence in our elections. Part of this is obviously a pretext for a larger effort to say that you can’t trust our elections — particularly if the administration doesn’t like how November turns out for them,” Hovland said. “We’ve seen that through the executive orders targeting machines, making claims about non-citizens, making claims about mail — none of which are backed up by the facts, none of which are backed up by evidence.”

“But you continue to hear it over and over again. And why is that?” Hovland added. “It’s to help try to undermine faith in the process. It’s to try to deter people from participating.”

That’s why Aguilar believes this is a moment for Americans “to stand up and tell this administration, ‘F*** off! I’m going to show up to vote… and show you that we value the fundamental right to vote.’”

“Hopefully, Americans and Nevadans use this as motivation, [that] they come out in droves because we need these margins to be large,” Aguilar added. “This is not the last attempt to try to intimidate us or to scare voters — they’re going to challenge the vote. But the larger the margins, the better off we’re going to be to be able to say, ‘Not this time!’”