Note: This story is developing and has been updated since it was first published.
With less than 70 days until Election Day, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday weighed in on some aspects of a March executive order instructing the U.S. Postal Service to play a more direct role in election administration. A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the service from implementing the new mail ballot rules, as ongoing legal actions proceed.
1. What do the new Postal Service rules cover?
The new mail ballot rules include three key elements, corresponding directly to the executive order. They do not apply to military and overseas ballots covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act. The elements are:
- Envelope design and review standards: Ballot delivery and return envelopes must adhere to Postal Service-defined standards, connecting mail ballot envelopes to individual voters and ensuring that ballot mail is “automation compatible.” This includes using unique intelligent mail barcodes and the Official Election Mail logo on ballot envelopes. These standards are similar to past Postal Service best practice recommendations for election mail, but this is the first time envelopes would be required to contain certain features and be reviewed by the service.
- Pre-election notification: States have the option to notify the Postal Service of their intent to use absentee/mail ballots no fewer than 90 days before an election. (As of the rule’s publication, the 2026 general election is fewer than 70 days away.) The Postal Service maintains this improves its ability to assist states by sharing contacts and facilitating the addition of voters to the mail-in and absentee list. Virtually every election in the country involves some absentee/mail ballots, and all states allow some form of access to absentee/mail voting. While some states require voters to provide a reason to vote absentee, 37 states either allow any voter to vote by mail without an excuse or send mail ballots to all active voters.
- Mail/absentee ballot participation list: Election officials must provide the Postal Service with a comprehensive list of all individuals who are sent an absentee/mail ballot. This list would be submitted through a new Federal Ballot Mail Portal and may be updated or modified by election officials as needed until the deadline to mail ballots in their state. State criteria for mail ballot eligibility would remain intact in each state. The Postal Service says this section of the rule is intended to “determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts,” which would include allowing law enforcement to compare numbers of mailed and received ballots to “detect potential issues meriting further investigation.”
2. What are the objections to the new rules?
The plaintiffs in the cases challenging the mail ballot rules argue the federal government has exceeded its authority to create policy and intervene in election administration. The U.S. Constitution gives states legislatures the authority to choose the times, places and manner of holding elections.
3. What happens if the rules go into effect?
- If implemented rapidly, the rules could result in unplanned costs to state and local governments. Election officials design and order their ballots, envelopes and other materials months before elections take place. The new rules could require last-minute changes to ballot envelopes and added costs for design and production of new envelopes.
- The rules would create the first national database of mail voters, requiring significant work to maintain and secure. This expanded role for the Postal Service in election administration would likely require significant software development, testing and training for postal employees and election officials at the state and local levels. The Postal Service has developed an internet portal system for election officials to provide lists of mail voters, but the type of testing this system has undergone, and how it will perform under stress, remains unclear.
- Mailings that do not comply with the new envelope requirements would not be transmitted to the voter but instead would be returned to the election office that mailed them. This could result in significant mail ballot delays to eligible voters, especially in jurisdictions that need to make last-minute changes to their mailing envelopes to meet the new Postal Service requirements.
- The rules do not apply to overseas or military ballots, but clarifying text in the rule appears to indicate that Postal Service workers will identify them by manually reading envelope text, creating an added layer of complexity to mail ballot handling for postal workers and election officials.
4. What did the Supreme Court say?
In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Monday reversed the June ruling from the federal District Court in Massachusetts that had blocked the executive order. The conservative justices held that the plaintiff states had not demonstrated they had been harmed by the executive order and therefore did not have standing to challenge it. The court said that states cannot attempt to demonstrate the order harmed them before implementation; the order’s instructions to the Postal Service and other federal agencies to decide how to implement the order did not in themselves harm the states. The justices said that challenges to specific actions the government takes to implement the order might be valid. The ruling did not address the Postal Service rule issued in August pursuant to the executive order, and the court did not comment on the legality of the executive order or the postal rules.
5. What’s the backstory here?
- President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 31 expanding the role of the federal government in conducting elections. The order directed the postmaster general to create new rules on the handling of absentee/mail ballots.
- The new rules, which the Postal Service finalized on Aug. 21, did not go into effect due to a number of legal challenges. A federal judge in Massachusetts on June 25 blocked parts of the March executive order. The same court blocked the mail ballot rules from going into effect nationwide in a separate case on Aug. 11.
- The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also blocked the new rules because of a 2021 settlement agreement. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that order, allowing the rules to proceed toward implementation.
- The Trump administration made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on Monday reversed the June 25 ruling blocking the executive order. The court did not address the legality of the new rules.
6. Where do things stand now?
As of Thursday, Aug. 28, the mail ballot envelope rule has been blocked, though pending litigation may affect its status in the coming days. A federal judge in Massachusetts on Wednesday reversed the nationwide injunction that had been in effect since Aug. 11. A new legal challenge to the final rule also was filed on Wednesday, resulting in the current temporary block on implementation.
Luke Belant is a project manager in NCSL’s Elections and Redistricting Program.
