First state mails ballots Friday as 14-day order nears expiration
The first midterm ballots go out to voters Friday, one day after a Boston federal judge hears arguments on whether to convert a 14-day restraining order against the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail-ballot system into a preliminary injunction covering the midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani is weighing whether to extend her order past its expiration next week. She imposed the 14-day temporary restraining order last week, barring the Postal Service from requiring states to adopt the new system under President Donald Trump’s executive order. With ballots already moving toward voters’ mailboxes, the hearing will determine whether the block holds through the midterms or lapses.
The Postal Service published regulations implementing Trump’s order just before the Supreme Court ruled late last month that Talwani’s earlier prohibition had been premature. The high court’s reasoning turned on the absence of published rules; once those rules appeared, voting-rights groups and Democrats swiftly re-filed their challenges in Talwani’s courtroom, returning the case to her docket.
Talwani first addressed the underlying order in June, prohibiting the administration from implementing it for the November election on the grounds that the changes came too close to Election Day for the federal government to undertake. That June order is what the Supreme Court later found premature, prompting the renewed litigation now before her on Thursday.
If Talwani converts the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction, the Postal Service cannot require states to adopt the new mail-ballot system for the midterms. If she does not extend her order, the system takes effect as ballots begin reaching voters.