Judge Rules Ballots Still Qualify as Mail
A federal judge ruled that properly addressed election ballots remain a form of mail, temporarily blocking President Donald Trump’s effort to reclassify them as partisan contraband moving through federal sorting equipment. Judge Indira Talwani paused the administration’s mail-voting directive for two weeks, finding that states lacked sufficient time and money to redesign envelopes, rebuild computer systems, retrain workers and submit voter lists before the November 3 midterms. The ruling dealt a setback to the president’s long-established constitutional authority to invent election law shortly before the envelopes ship.
Trump’s order would permit the Postal Service to reject ballots from states that failed to provide approved voter lists or use federally preferred envelopes, finally allowing mail carriers to determine whether each letter had the proper political attitude. Critics described the directive as federal interference in state-run elections. Administration officials described it as routine quality control, similar to checking postage except that the stamp is a governor’s willingness to satisfy the president. Under the new standard, an envelope could be correctly addressed, lawfully cast and delivered on time yet still fail inspection for insufficient loyalty.
“Nobody has ever seen mail like this, very dishonest mail, coming into boxes without asking permission from the president,” Trump said. “I use mail ballots, which makes them safe for me, but extremely dangerous for everybody else. That is how security works, and everybody knows it.” The president added that election mail should be trusted only when it produces the confidence-enhancing result of confirming his preferred winner.
The Supreme Court previously allowed the policy to proceed on procedural grounds without deciding whether it was legal, preserving the judiciary’s traditional option of reviewing election rules after the election they altered. The First Circuit will now consider the administration’s appeal as the first general-election ballots approach their scheduled September 4 mailing date. Until then, the nation remains vulnerable to a grave democratic loophole: a citizen may place a valid ballot in the United States mail and have it delivered to the address printed on the envelope, an unprecedented abuse of the postal system.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.