States and election officials warn Supreme Court against Trump mail-in ballot ‘chaos’
States and election officials warn Supreme Court against Trump mail-in ballot ‘chaos’
Alex Woodward Tue, August 4, 2026 at 5:53 PM UTC
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Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states, dozens of election officials and more than 50 former state and federal judges are urging the Supreme Court to block Donald Trump’s threats to mail-in voting, which they say could illegally interfere with the nation’s elections and create “chaos” for voters and their ballots.
Trump filed an emergency appeal to the nation’s high court last week after federal courts blocked the president’s executive action, which a judge said could disenfranchise “many eligible voters” by restricting U.S. Postal Service delivery of ballots to people who do not appear on a newly mandated list of eligible voters.
If the justices let the order take effect with fewer than 100 days before Election Day, “the result will be chaos,” according to a bipartisan coalition of 118 current and former election officials tasked with running the nation’s elections.
A group of 53 judges — most of whom were appointed by Republicans — told the Supreme Court that the president’s order is “a recipe for confusion among voters” that will “strain” election officials, while attorneys general from 22 states and Washington, D.C. warned against the president’s “extraordinary threats to our democracy.”
“It would be extremely difficult — if not impossible — to obtain a definitive judicial resolution with enough time remaining for states to redesign and reorder their ballot mail, train elections officials, and adequately educate the public before the November midterms,” they wrote.
Dozens of state officials, election workers and former judges are urging the Supreme Court to block Donald Trump’s executive order targeting mail-in ballots that could spark ‘chaos’ and confusion for voters for the midterms (Getty)
Trump’s order would force states to add barcodes to ballots and rely on the administration’s voter lists compiled by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
States are already spending millions of dollars to prepare for November elections, including printing absentee ballots that would be unusable under Trump’s rules.
Election workers are now in the “untenable position” of carrying out Trump’s order “on pain of threats of criminal prosecution” with elections already underway in most states, forced to overhaul their election systems just weeks before ballots are sent, they said.
Trump’s order “would allow the federal government to rush out an unprecedented, legally indefensible voter-verification and ballot-interception program that would, among other things, give the U.S. Postal Service far-reaching new powers and responsibilities,” according to the states.
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“The consequences of allowing such transformative changes to take effect so close to this fall’s elections would be extreme,” the states argued. “Because of the high risk of errors and the limited window for correcting mistakes, many of the millions of voters who rely on mail voting — especially voters with disabilities and those in rural areas — would likely be denied mail ballots and, as a result, disenfranchised.”
Last month, a federal appeals court determined that “unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections” would “threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters.”
Even a Trump appointee on the three-judge panel agreed in a separate opinion that the president’s order could impose “concrete injury” to legal voting.
Trump — who has spent years baselessly insisting that voting by mail is ripe for fraud, and that manipulated ballots were “rigged” against him in elections he lost — is simultaneously demanding the Senate pass his SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, among other restrictions.
Critics fear the president’s efforts to centralize control over election administration, which is left to the states, is an attempt to boost Republican candidates and suppress Democratic turnout ahead of November elections that could determine the balance of power in Congress — and the fate of Trump’s remaining years in office.
“The injury is not abstract,” the judges wrote. “It is the current displacement of the States’ power to create, enforce, and administer their own election rules.”
Trump’s executive order restricts Postal Service delivery of ballots to people who do not appear on a newly mandated list of eligible voters created by his administration (AFP/Getty)
Administration officials have admitted that data compiled by the federal government was set to be handed off to state election officials before citizens could check to see if their information is accurate — which could force eligible voters from state voter rolls without recourse.
In the administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said a court injunction against Trump’s order “preemptively” decided that “whatever the agencies may choose to do will necessarily be unlawful.”
“The court’s incursion on the government’s authority imposes irreparable harm on the government by impeding the President’s efforts to secure election integrity — and doing so in a manner that will be effectively unreviewable as to the November election even if the government prevails on appeal,” Sauer wrote.
Trump’s latest legal battle at the Supreme Court follows a wave of litigation targeting states over their election rules and voter lists, which the Department of Justice has repeatedly failed to collect.
At least 19 federal court rulings have blocked the administration from capturing voter data.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
