Three states already sending ballots under preserved system
Election officials from both parties on Monday welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the 2026 midterm elections. State officials from Washington, Arizona and Utah issued statements after the ruling.
Lawmakers gave their support to the court’s decision, which capped a flurry of last-minute legal action as voting was already underway. States were allowed to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes used for years.
Election officials said there was simply no way to carry out a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterms. Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin began sending mail ballots to voters over the past week while the new system was still not active.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said the decision means work “to carry out a safe, secure, and accurate election” can continue “without having to upend our election processes to meet unrealistic ballot mail requirements.”
In Arizona, another largely vote-by-mail state, Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said “it is crucial for us to continue rejecting the notion that access and security are mutually exclusive when it comes to running strong elections.”
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican serving as the state’s chief election officer, said on social media that the Supreme Court’s decision means “Utahns can have confidence that the 2026 election will proceed as normal.”
Other developments: McConnell returns, Newsom on 2028, Trump and Obama on AI
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the 84-year-old Republican from Kentucky, was seen in Washington for the first time in months on Monday, minutes before his office released a statement saying that he was back at work.
California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, in what The Guardian described as a slip of the tongue reminiscent of Joe Biden, told CNN he would not run for president in 2028 if his fellow Californian, former Vice President Kamala Harris, decides to run again. “I know what that means: I know her base of supporters, I know her friends, the zen diagram on that is just pure crossover,” Newsom said.
In a separate development, Donald Trump claimed there is a “SICK conspiracy” against artificial intelligence and data centers, in response to growing calls for greater checks on AI development. Former President Barack Obama, in a statement posted on social media, called for the pace of AI development to be slowed to allow time for the federal government to develop regulations to address “serious safety concerns.”