This week at Democracy Docket: Final arguments on Trump’s mail voting order — plus a huge win for Missouri voters

Access to the ballot in the 2026 midterm elections now sits in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The justices are fully briefed, and a ruling is expected imminently on whether to lift a block on a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) rule implementing President Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting order, which could disenfranchise large numbers of voters if allowed to go into effect.

Again this week, Democracy Docket covered the battle over Trump’s order more closely than anyone else. The 19 stories our reporters published on the subject not only dug into the slew of court filings from both sides, but also explained how things are playing out on the ground — and how a decision in favor of Trump’s order would cause chaos for voters and election officials in states across the country.

Here are a few: 

• Alexandra Hutzler brought us blue states’ warning to the Supreme Court that the order “would wreak havoc on states and their voters if it takes effect at this late point.”
• Natalie Hausmann reported that some mail ballots in North Carolina have already been returned. Those ballots could well be at risk of rejection if Trump’s order is revived.
• Jen Rice added that over 51 million mail ballots must go out by late October, according to numbers cited by the federal judge who recently blocked Trump’s order.
• Jim Saksa noticed that, in an ominous sign, a Florida county initially had its mail ballots rejected by USPS, under the rule, over a 0.014-inch spacing issue.
• Matt Cohen explained how — despite a supposed carve-out in the order —  hundreds of thousands of overseas voters could still be at risk of disenfranchisement, according to a new amicus brief.
• Jacob Knutson highlighted the claim from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that the order should go into effect even if it disenfranchises voters.
• Brentin Mock noted that in its court filings, DOJ has stayed silent on when key components of the government’s plans for implementing the rule will be made public — with states unable to comply in the mean time.
• And Jacob wrote Friday evening that a USPS official said last week that the portal for states to submit their mail ballot to would be functional some time this week. Well, the week is now over — and still no portal.

You get the idea: Putting Trump’s order into place for the midterms would create a level of chaos and potential disenfranchisement that would seriously compromise the fairness of the election. Which appears to be Trump’s goal.

Meanwhile, we went almost as deep on another story: the epic fight over Missouri’s GOP-backed gerrymander — which, at least for this year’s election, has finally been killed off.

To cut to the chase: On September 3, Missouri’s Supreme Court had unanimously blocked the gerrymander, which wiped out a Democratic seat in Kansas City. The court ruled that the GOP-friendly map can’t go into effect until being approved by voters. That’s because pro-democracy advocates had gathered enough signatures to get a referendum on the map onto the November ballot.

The U.S. Supreme Court — actually Justice Brett Kavanaugh, acting alone — rejected Missouri officials’ request to reverse that decision. But just as gerrymander foes were celebrating, word came of a new ruling from U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark, finding that, since the gerrymander was used in the primaries, no other map could be used for the general election. 

That threw things into confusion — but the U.S. Supreme Court again stepped in to block the gerrymander and dash the GOP’s hopes. 

Oh, and in an entertaining subplot, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) was held in contempt for blatantly defying the state Supreme Court. Hoskins had seized on Clark’s ruling to direct election officials to use the gerrymandered map — despite the state Supreme Court’s clear order blocking it.

Since last year, Jen Rice has tracked all things redistricting for us, and, with some help from the team, she kept us updated on the news from Missouri every step of the way.

In the end, the GOP’s Show Me State power grab failed. But, as Democracy Docket contributor Billy Corriher noted in an opinion piece, it offers a stark warning, if one were needed, about the party’s eagerness to undermine democracy to gain an advantage.