President Trump files emergency appeal to Supreme Court over mail-in voting rules
President Trump filed an emergency appeal over mail-in voting restrictions.
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on July 27 to allow President Donald Trump to tighten mail-in voting rules nationwide ahead of this fall’s midterm elections, as he seeks to increase federal control over voting.
President Trump filed the emergency appeal after a lower court blocked the government from creating a federal list of eligible voters and restricting the distribution of mail-in ballots to only those on that list in nearly half of the states.
A federal judge in Boston said in June that key parts of an executive order signed by President Trump in March were unconstitutional, ruling that the 23 states challenging the order could not enforce those parts this year.
In July, an appeals court rejected the administration’s argument that the states’ lawsuits were premature because the executive order had not been fully implemented.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the change was already burdensome on states and would “lead to chaos and threaten to disenfranchise large numbers of voters” if allowed to take effect in November’s elections.
But the Justice Department told the Supreme Court that the suspension of President Trump’s executive order is “particularly indefensible because the departments are still considering how, if at all, to implement the executive order.”
The government’s lawyers wrote that the lower court “preemptively determined that any action chosen by the authorities would necessarily be illegal.”
The Supreme Court asked states challenging the order to respond to the administration’s appeals by August 3.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said President Trump’s executive order is “voter suppression by another name.” He said the court “must reject this latest brazen power grab attempt.”
Mail-in voting is a key battle before important midterm elections
The fight over absentee voting rules is a key battleground in the 2026 midterm elections that will determine which party controls Congress. Democrats could take control by flipping a small number of seats in the House and Senate.
Voting by mail is down compared to its peak during the coronavirus pandemic. However, nearly 30% of voters still voted that way in the 2024 election.
Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans.
Trump himself has voted by mail, but claims absentee voting is prone to fraud. He directed the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote for each state to consult.
The U.S. Postal Service was ordered to deliver ballots only to voters on each state’s approved vote-by-mail list.
The Department of Justice must prioritize the investigation and prosecution of state and local election officials who award federal ballots to people deemed ineligible to vote.
Each state administers federal elections
The appeals court said President Trump’s executive order “directs an unprecedented level of involvement by federal authorities in how states administer elections.”
Under the Constitution, each state is assigned the role of administering federal elections. However, since losing his re-election bid in 2020, Trump has called for greater federal control. He continues to push false claims that he lost because of widespread voter fraud.
As part of a broader bill, President Trump has proposed a bill that would require voters to show identification at polling places or proof of citizenship when registering, but it has stalled in Congress.
The justices also blocked another executive order requiring voters to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.
And in June, the Supreme Court rejected a Republican effort to block states from counting ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward.
