The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to halt a federal judge’s blockade on mail-in voting restrictions again.
Judge Indira Talwani, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, issued an order blocking the United States Postal Service from requiring unique barcodes on mail-ballot envelopes and lists of voters who requested ballots.
The first mail-in ballots across the country will begin to ship out in North Carolina on Friday from the 100 county boards of elections. Solicitor General John Sauer said the administration’s rule would implement practices that are already commonplace in states across the country and characteristic of USPS authority.
“It requires states to upload the name, address, and barcode information of intended recipients of ballot mail in an online portal – information that election officials would necessarily already possess to send ballot mail to those recipients,” Sauer wrote.
He said the USPS already implemented regulations on processing of cremated remains, explosives and other election-related materials. Sauer also pointed to North Carolina’s mail-in ballot period as a reason to halt the federal judge’s order since many states have already implemented the barcode changes.
Wisconsin is next to begin mailing absentee ballots on Sept. 17.
“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” Sauer said.
The Trump administration also argued that the judge’s order makes the mail-in voting guidelines appear optional when it is meant to be mandatory.
“There is a grave risk that states may not have taken the necessary steps to comply due to the false sense of latitude created by the court’s improper order, potentially depriving those states’ citizens of the ability to vote by mail,” Sauer wrote.
The Trump administration asked justices on the high court to respond by Sept. 8 to its appeal.