Overview
- A federal judge in Boston extended an injunction on Friday that keeps the Postal Service’s finalized mail‑ballot rule from taking effect while she considers whether to issue a longer block.
- The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday asking justices to lift the injunction and allow USPS to enforce the rule for the midterm elections.
- The rule would require states to upload lists of mail‑ballot recipients to a USPS portal and place unique barcodes on outbound and return ballot envelopes, with USPS authorized to refuse noncompliant mailings.
- Election officials say many states already printed ballots and envelopes and cannot meet approval, printing and data‑upload steps quickly, and North Carolina began mailing absentee ballots on Friday under its existing rules.
- A whistleblower alleged the USPS portal was rushed and under‑tested and warned that a single barcode mismatch could trigger batch rejections, a risk that judges and voting‑rights groups say could disenfranchise voters and disrupt the midterms.