Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 24 other Democratic attorneys general on Wednesday filed suit against the U.S. Postal Service over what they are calling an unlawful attempt to interfere with mail voting in the fast approaching midterm elections.
But the new legal challenge came just as a federal judge in Boston gave the Trump administration another procedural win — lifting an order that prohibited the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump’s mail ballot executive order.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani wrote that she was “compelled” to do so after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled a similar injunction she granted in a separate case was premature. Talwani, however, said the executive order could unleash “chaos” and referred to it as “likely unconstitutional.”
The Trump administration can now move forward to implement the Postal Service rule, which was published on Friday. The rule would require states to follow a uniform envelope style for mail ballots and give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them. Under the rule, the Postal Service will not deliver ballots to voters who do not appear on the Postal Service-generated lists, and will not deliver ballots in envelopes that fail to comply with the rule’s new standards.
That would leave local election officials scrambling, with some states expected to send out their mail ballots as soon as next week.
The rule is at the heart of the attorneys general suit filed on Wednesday, and the coalition wants the court to strike down the rule and issue a temporary restraining order preventing the rule from taking effect while the litigation proceeds. They also argue that the rule will prevent states from effectively administering their mail voting programs, which will ultimately put voters at risk of being disenfranchised.
“The rule I am challenging today is yet another unlawful attempt by the Trump administration to control state voting systems. We are asking the court for emergency relief because the administration is trying to undermine our citizens’ access to voting within weeks of the midterm elections,” Raoul said in a statement. “The U.S. Constitution plainly gives states — not the executive branch — the power to administer elections, and I am committed to swiftly fighting against this blatantly unconstitutional rule. I will not let the president sow chaos into the upcoming general election.”
The AGs also argue that the U.S. Constitution makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections and that the new rule will upend longstanding vote-by-mail procedures. They also say the rule is inconsistent with the Postal Service’s governing statutes, ignores the Postal Service’s procedural requirements, violates the Privacy Act and is inconsistent with federal voting rights law.
Trump’s executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of U.S. citizens, with the U.S. Postal Service also creating a list of eligible voters from each state. Trump has said his executive order is intended to stop people who lack legal status from voting in federal elections, which is already extremely rare.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis on Wednesday said the Postal Service’s proposals were “commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots” and that the administration would continue to work to implement them to boost “the safety and security of our elections.”
The Postal Service said it would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.
Contributing: AP