A federal judge appointed by President Trump has dealt Trump's mail-voting plan another setback. Late Sunday, US District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington blocked a Postal Service rule tied to a March executive order that would have had the agency preregister mail voters through a new portal and refuse to deliver ballots for people not cleared by state election officials, the New York Times reports. Nichols, who issued a preliminary injunction. said the administration had shown no proof of looming fraud but that the rule posed a strong risk that valid mail ballots would go uncounted.
- "Plaintiffs have demonstrated that, absent an injunction, there is an increased risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted in the upcoming elections," Nichols wrote, per the AP. "The public has a strong interest in ensuring that doesn't happen."
It's the second such ruling in recent days. The Supreme Court is already weighing a similar case out of Massachusetts, where Judge Indira Talwani found the plan likely unconstitutional so close to an election. Nichols instead focused on power, not timing, concluding Congress never gave the Postal Service authority to screen voters or build a mail-voter database. His order, issued in a lawsuit brought by Democratic-aligned and civil rights groups, arrives as some Republican-led states signal they're ready to adopt the new system if courts allow it—and as election officials warn of possible confusion with tens of millions of ballots already in the mail.
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