Trump seeks Supreme Court approval for controversial mail ballot changes
The Justice Department has asked the conservative-majority Supreme Court to immediately allow USPS to introduce its regulations
US President Donald Trump's administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the US Postal Service to implement sweeping new rules that could withhold delivery of some mail ballots ahead of the November midterm elections.
According to CNN, the emergency appeal comes less than two months before voting and bypasses lower courts that are still considering challenges to Trump's March executive order expanding the federal government's role in elections.
Voter advocacy groups and 23 Democratic-led states have challenged the order, arguing the president and USPS should not determine which mail ballots reach voters.
The Justice Department has asked the conservative-majority Supreme Court to immediately allow USPS to introduce its regulations.
According to CNN, the administration described the changes as “only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements.”
“The rule thus plainly does not seize control of states’ administration of elections,” the administration told the Supreme Court.
“It simply imposes reasonable preparation requirements for certain election-related mail.”
However, election officials have warned that changing mail ballot systems so close to the midterms could cause major disruption.
“USPS’s mail ballot rule is an unconstitutional attempt to upend mail voting on the eve of an election,” ACLU Voting Rights Project director Sophia Lin Lakin said, according to CNN.
The Supreme Court previously sided with the Trump administration on the issue in August.
