Judge expands block on Trump mail-in voting executive order

Aug. 12 (UPI) — A federal judge expanded a block on President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting that would require the U.S. Postal Service to decide who will get mail-in ballots.

Judge Indira Talwani released the order Tuesday to expand the block while the court awaits a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the matter.

The expanded order blocks USPS from implementing Section 3 of the order for this year’s elections and any earlier federal elections. Section 3 says that USPS is “directed to initiate a proposed rulemaking … and other applicable authority within 60 days of the date of this order.”

Talwani said the plaintiffs, which are voting rights groups, are likely to succeed in the case. She also found that the order is causing confusion among voters.

“Throughout the multiple actions before district courts, courts of appeal and the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal government has declined to defend the constitutionality of the EO’s directives,” Talwani wrote.

Trump signed the order on March 31 directing the Department of Homeland Security to build a list of citizens from federal data. Those lists would then be sent to state election officials. The USPS would then only send absentee or mail-in ballots to people it has determined are eligible to vote, and the attorney general would investigate and prosecute election officials who issue federal ballots to those ineligible to vote.

Then, 23 mostly Democrat-led states sued the Trump administration to block the order, and Talwani agreed with the plaintiffs. The administration appealed the decision and failed. It then appealed the decision on July 27 to the Supreme Court, which hasn’t yet made a ruling.

The League of Women Voters of Mblockachusetts, along with other nonpartisan voting rights groups, filed suit on July 21 claiming that the order was causing them harm as they worked to help eligible voters prepare for the November elections.

The section of the order that they specifically took issue with directs the USPS to refuse to transmit the ballots of certain voters, said the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the organizations.

“The nonpartisan organizations that filed this challenge work in every state to ensure eligible voters can exercise their rights and responsibilities as U.S. citizens. Millions of those voters rely on mail ballots, including people with disabilities, students, people in rural areas, military service members, Americans living overseas, and the elderly. The threat of the U.S. Postal Service interfering with mail ballots — in violation of its Congressionally established role as a neutral mail carrier — is disrupting vital voting rights work and threatens to disenfranchise untold numbers of American citizens,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.

They lauded Tuesday’s ruling.

“Today’s ruling sends another necessary message to an administration that continues to weaponize portions of the government to sow chaos into our elections at the expense of eligible voters,” Sophia Lin Lakin, an ACLU attorney for the order’s challengers, said in a statement. “The president does not get to rewrite the rules of voting, and he certainly does not get to treat voters as collateral damage in his campaign to control state-run elections.”