Trump pushes US Supreme Court to revive blocked mail ballot rule as voting begins

US President Donald Trump’s administration has again asked the US Supreme Court to allow new Postal Service rules for mail ballots to take effect ahead of November’s midterm elections.

According to CNN, the emergency appeal filed Sunday follows a federal judge’s decision to indefinitely block the USPS plan.

The administration withdrew an earlier appeal after filing the new request “to simplify proceedings,” the Justice Department said.

The dispute comes as North Carolina has already begun sending mail ballots, with Alabama and several other states expected to follow this month.

“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” the Justice Department told the Supreme Court.

The proposed rules would require state and local election officials to upload lists of mail voters to a portal and place special tracking barcodes on ballot envelopes.

The administration says the measures are needed to improve ballot security. However, 23 Democratic-led states and voting rights groups have challenged the plan, arguing it could disenfranchise voters.

“With fewer than 60 days to go before the November election, there is not a shred of evidence that states could comply with it without disenfranchising voters who rely on mail ballots,” ACLU Voting Rights Project director Sophia Lin Lakin said to CNN.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has ordered challengers to respond by Wednesday.