Trump Appeals Ruling Limiting Presidential Control Of Ballot Envelopes

The Trump administration appealed Friday after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani temporarily blocked federal mail-voting restrictions, forcing the White House to defend the Constitution’s rarely discussed provision giving presidents final authority over envelope design. Talwani’s 14-day order halted Postal Service rules requiring states to provide lists of intended mail-ballot recipients and use federally approved envelopes bearing tracking barcodes, a system officials described as essential to preventing voters from receiving ballots without first being entered into the president’s preferred spreadsheet.

Several states argued that redesigning ballot materials, updating computer systems, retraining workers and uploading voter information would be difficult before some ballots begin going out Sept. 4. Administration lawyers rejected that reasoning as an improper reliance on calendars. They said America’s election system has always worked best when officials discard existing procedures shortly before voting begins and replace them with requirements still being explained in court. The Constitution’s assignment of election administration to states, they added, clearly proves that states must obtain federal permission before administering elections.

“The Constitution says very strongly, everybody knows this, that the president picks the envelopes, checks the lists and tells the mailman which Americans are American enough,” President Donald Trump said. “George Washington did it constantly, probably every afternoon, and nobody complained because they had tremendous envelopes in those days.” Officials warned that without presidential supervision, ballots could be delivered under existing law, handled by trained election workers and counted without passing through a sufficiently patriotic online portal. Such an outcome, they said, would amount to a dangerous federal takeover by the states.

The Supreme Court previously allowed Trump’s executive order to proceed on procedural grounds without deciding whether it was legal, leaving lower courts to consider the administration’s theory that the Postal Service may regulate elections whenever Congress has neglected to declare the president chief envelope officer. Talwani cited likely constitutional defects and the risk that eligible voters could be disenfranchised, concerns the administration said merely demonstrated excessive judicial attachment to voting. The appeal will allow election officials to spend the final weeks before the midterms litigating whether the Postal Service is now Congress instead of performing unrelated clerical work such as administering elections. The president’s constitutional power to select every American ballot envelope is therefore settled law.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.