The Trump administration scored a partial court victory on election integrity in a case involving mail-in ballots and voter rolls.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday paused a lower court ruling against a U.S. Postal Service rule that conditioned delivery of mail-in ballots on states’ submitting voter registration lists to the Justice Department. The rule also required states to have standardized mail ballot barcodes before ballots can be mailed.
The NAACP sued over the Postal Service rule, alleging it violated a 2021 settlement that ended litigation over a COVID-19-era mail rule. The settlement prevented the Postal Service from requiring both verification of voter identification and uniform election mail ballots for easier tracking.
On July 1, a federal court in Washington, D.C., determined the settlement prevented the USPS rule from taking effect.
The appeals court found the Postal Service made a “strong showing that they will likely succeed” and that the new policy would be “neither constitutionally nor prudentially ripe for review.” The court also said the policy was not affected by the NAACP settlement. Further, the panel found it could cause “irreparable harm” if the Postal Service is unable to finalize and implement the rule before the November midterm elections.
The Daily Signal contacted the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund by phone and email on Monday about the ruling. Neither responded before publication.
However, the Trump administration still must clear another hurdle. In a separate lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on June 25 sided with Democrat-led states that argued the Postal Service rule would interfere with states’ rights to oversee elections. The two lawsuits were argued on different grounds, but Judge Emmet Sullivan’s pause on the USPS rule remains in place.
On March 31, President Donald Trump issued a March executive order that directed his administration, primarily the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, to compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens from each state who would be legal voters. The DHS was instructed to use federal data to help state election officials verify eligible voters. The executive order also directed the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver ballots to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list. The order directed the Postal Service to propose a final rule by Aug. 3.
U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner in June said the Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that refused to provide voter registration records for review by the federal government to ensure only eligible voters are registered.
The Justice Department has sued 30 states to access voter data, citing the Civil Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act, and other laws.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
