A federal judge lifted a key roadblock on mail-in voting rules after a Supreme Court ruling, escalating the national election legal battle.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to immediately reinstate a contentious federal rule that would dramatically overhaul how the U.S. Postal Service handles mail-in ballots, setting off a high-stakes constitutional showdown less than two months before the November midterm elections.
The emergency petition seeks to lift a lower-court injunction blocking a finalized Postal Service regulation that requires states to submit centralized registries of approved mail-ballot recipients and mandate specialized, unique barcodes on all outgoing and return ballot envelopes. Under the agency’s framework, postal workers would be barred from delivering absentee ballots to any prospective voter whose name does not appear on an authenticated, state-certified eligibility roster.