Supreme Court rejects Trump mail ballot restrictions ahead of midterms

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots for the 2026 midterm elections, allowing states to continue using their existing mail-voting procedures as ballots are already being distributed.

The Trump administration had sought to require states to use standardized ballot envelopes and submit lists of eligible voters through a federal online portal. The U.S. Postal Service could have refused to deliver ballots from states that failed to comply. Election officials argued that implementing such sweeping changes only weeks before the election could disrupt voting and potentially prevent eligible voters from receiving ballots.

The Supreme Court majority indicated that the administration’s effort to impose the requirements this year was unlikely to succeed legally, although its emergency order did not provide a detailed explanation. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Alito argued that the Postal Service has broad authority over the mail and could potentially enforce the administration’s requirements.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not take effect for the upcoming midterms but suggested the administration’s underlying legal arguments could receive a different hearing in a future case.

Lower federal courts had already blocked the administration’s plan. State election officials and voting-rights organizations argued that the president lacked constitutional authority to impose election procedures on states through the Postal Service and warned that the proposed system could create widespread disruption. A whistleblower report also raised concerns that technical problems with the proposed federal portal could result in entire batches of ballots being rejected.

The administration maintained that the changes were intended to strengthen election security and argued that federal control over the Postal Service gave it authority to regulate how mailed ballots are handled. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the broader constitutional and statutory questions unresolved while preventing the new requirements from taking effect during the 2026 election.

Writer: Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press Contributing AP writers: Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson, Gene Johnson, Jacques Billeaud and Wufei Yu.