June 26, 2026 09:24 AM UTC

Judge Ices Trump's Mail Ballot Shenanigans, For Now

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Jonathan Shorman reports for Colorado Newsline, President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to meddle unhelpfully in the elections of states utilizing mail ballots has been stopped cold by a federal judge:

A federal judge on Thursday blocked major portions of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, finding he had exceeded his constitutional authority.

The decision halts, at least until a nearly certain appeal is heard, efforts by the U.S. Postal Service to require states to submit the names of likely mail voters before it delivers ballots. It also stops the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from compiling lists of voting-age citizens in each state…

The executive order directed Postmaster General David Steiner to put forward a rule requiring states, at least 90 days before a federal election, notify the Postal Service whether they intended to allow ballots to be sent through the mail. States would then have to submit to USPS a list of voters planning to vote by mail at least 60 days before the election.

Talwani wrote that the Postal Service lacks any authorization by Congress to put forward binding regulations on mail-in voting. The Constitution, she wrote, “reserves the power to determine voter eligibility to the States alone.”

This decision takes on added importance after Trump’s Postmaster General David Steiner confirmed in Senate testimony that he intends to help Trump throw a monkeywrench in mail ballot delivery:

Postmaster General David Steiner told lawmakers Wednesday that the U.S. Postal Service will no longer deliver mail-in ballots in states that refuse to provide sensitive voter data to the federal government, in line with a proposed rule from the Trump administration.

Steiner defended the measure at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, saying it was to ensure that “the right ballots are going to the right people” after Senate Democrats aired concerns about the proposal.

At least pending appeal, that isn’t happening now–and although we’re not lawyers, it’s very hard to see how the USPS can be legally allowed to interfere in a process that is constitutionally delegated to states. Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold, whose office was among the many plaintiffs in the suit, hailed the court’s decision in a statement:

Today a federal court enjoined major provisions of Donald Trump’s unconstitutional and unlawful executive order on mail ballots. Trump will not be able to use the Postal Service to control which voters receive a mail ballot, and cannot use the DOJ to intimidate election officials into following his unlawful order. The Constitution is clear: States run elections, not Trump. This is a major victory for American democracy.

With the GOP trifecta in Washington at an internal standoff as Trump demands the passage of his draconian vote suppression bill requiring every voter to produce a birth certificate and proof of any legal name change (sorry ladies), a bill that Colorado Republicans in Congress already voted to approve, Trump’s mail ballot executive order is just one of many threats to voting rights looming ahead of the November midterms that Republicans are otherwise expected to historically lose. We unfortunately must prepare for the likely eventuality that Republicans, at least in the Trump era, will never accept the results of elections they lose again.

The good news is, as of this writing, you’re still getting a ballot in the mail in October.

But you’d better stay tuned.