The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow the U.S. Postal Service to enforce new mail ballot rules ahead of the November midterms.
The Justice Department petitioned the high court to lift a lower court’s temporary order blocking key parts of the rule enacted as part of a crackdown by the administration on mail-in ballots.
“The district court’s continued prejudgment of the rule is baseless, and an immediate stay is warranted,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote.
The administration’s new policy requires local election officials to use only federally approved ballot envelopes. It also requires those officials to upload voters’ names, addresses and ballot barcodes to a Postal Service portal. Mailed ballots that do not meet those standards could be returned to election officials.
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U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee in Massachusetts, found last week that the states challenging the new rules were likely to show that the Postal Service exceeded its authority.
She said imposing the requirements weeks before ballots are mailed could prevent eligible voters from receiving them.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on the new request.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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