U.S. Postal Service says new mail-in voting restrictions are now in effect

What This is

• The Supreme Court lifted a lower-court injunction, allowing parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail voting to move forward while lawsuits continue.
• The U.S. Postal Service says the new ballot-handling requirements tied to the order are now in effect and were implemented immediately ahead of the November midterms.
• One change would require state election officials to submit voter data through a USPS system for inspection, which states argue forces them to share sensitive election information with a federal agency.
• The rules and order would limit sending or delivering mail ballot materials based on eligibility checks, including using federal records and a list of eligible voters tied to DHS.
• Another change would require stricter ballot-envelope design standards, including unique tracking barcodes, to meet USPS requirements.
• Pennsylvania’s governor, Washington, Washington, D.C., and more than 20 other states filed a new federal lawsuit seeking to block the USPS rules and the executive order’s mail-voting provisions.

Why This Matters

• Mail voting depends on clear, stable rules; last-minute changes can confuse voters and election offices.
• The fight tests how much control the federal government can claim over election administration that states usually run.
• If eligibility checks are wrong or handled unevenly, eligible voters could lose a ballot or have it delayed.
• Tracking and envelope standards could improve security and troubleshooting, but they may also raise costs and create new failure points if states cannot comply in time.