Overview
- A three‑judge panel in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected the administration’s request on Thursday to lift a preliminary injunction that bars key parts of the Postal Service rule.
- The injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani at the end of August, stops USPS from requiring unique Intelligent Mail barcodes, federal approval of envelope designs, and uploads of complete voter lists to a federal ballot portal before mailing ballots.
- An anonymous USPS whistleblower has warned the portal and scanning process were rushed and could discard whole batches of ballots if any one envelope fails to match an uploaded list, a flaw election officials say could prevent jurisdictions from mailing ballots at all.
- The Postal Service says its systems are mostly ready and the Justice Department has filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking permission to implement the rule before the midterms.
- The dispute springs from President Trump’s March executive order directing federal checks on state mail voting and raises a federalism question that could change how elections are run and affect elderly, disabled, rural, reservation, and military voters who rely on mail ballots.