An election worker sorts absentee ballots at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections office in Doral for Florida’s primary election in August.
Lynne Sladky/AP
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Lynne Sladky/AP
Voting for this year’s midterm elections has just concluded, but Republican officials in several states are already looking to shape how votes will be cast in 2028.
Twelve Republican state attorneys general are pushing to revive the president’s proposal to restrict mail-in voting in time for the 2028 election.
On Thursday, they began the process of appealing a September order by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, one of two judges who blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a plan issued in response to an executive order from President Trump.
Republican attorneys general represent Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas. It’s unclear, however, how long some of these states will pursue this case, given that Democrats won up and down in the midterm elections. In Texas and Kansas, Democratic candidates are expected to take control of their states’ attorney general offices in January.
In September, the Supreme Court refused to stay a similar ruling by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani. That order prevented the USPS from working on its revised rule regarding federal ballots, but it only applied to this year’s midterm elections.
Nichols’ preliminary injunction blocks the USPS from implementing the plan for all federal elections, including the 2028 race.
It’s unclear whether the Trump administration plans to appeal Nichols’ ruling before Friday’s deadline to file a notice with the court. Asked about the Justice Department’s plans, DOJ spokesman Matthew Tragesser responded in an email that the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The blocked rule — which the Postal Service released in late August — would require states to turn over lists of voters’ names and addresses in order to have them delivered by the USPS.
Nichols, a Washington-based judge appointed by Trump, ruled that the postal agency probably does not have the authority to impose this requirement on states.
“As the government admits, the Postal Service could only issue (and enforce) the rule if Congress gave it the authority to do so, but here, no law grants the Postal Service the authority to issue key parts of the rule,” Nichols wrote.
The administration’s previous efforts to put these new restrictions in place for the midterms alarmed many election officials, worried about last-minute changes causing major disruptions for the tens of millions of people who regularly vote by mail. Some voters with disabilities and those living in places without polling places, they feared, may have lost the ability to exercise their right to vote.
A whistleblower report claimed that the online system that officials would have to use to meet the USPS’ revised voting requirements was not properly tested and could have resulted in many eligible voters not receiving their absentee ballots on time, if at all.
While the Supreme Court ultimately halted implementation of the USPS rule for the midterms, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas disagreed with the decision.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in a concurring opinion that he believed state and local elections officials had not had enough time to “reasonably implement the rule” this time. But Kavanaugh noted that “there is at least a good chance that the final rule will fall within the Postal Service’s statutory authority.”
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
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