Federal judge blocks USPS plan to restrict mail-in voting nationwide

A federal judge blocked a proposed restriction on mail-in voting across the United States, preventing the postal service from denying ballot deliveries in states that do not turn over voter rolls to federal agencies. The ruling by Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. district court for the District of Columbia bars the postal service from enforcing an executive order issued in March that called for changes to election administration nationwide.

Background of the proposed rule In accordance with the order, the postal service issued a proposed rule on 2 June that would require states to give the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies access to voter lists and adopt new balloting procedures before the mail agency would deliver ballots. If states did not comply, the postal service would refuse to deliver the ballots.

Court findings and prior rulings Sullivan sided with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which argued that the new rule would violate a 2021 legal settlement requiring the postal service to take extraordinary measures to ensure timely delivery of ballot mail.

The NAACP had sued the postal service in 2020 after delayed mail service threatened election access during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sullivan’s decision follows a ruling by U.S. district judge Indira Talwani last week that blocked the administration’s plan for mail-in voting across 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Statements from the parties “This ruling is a critical step in protecting the rights of voters who rely on the timely delivery of mail-in ballots to participate in our democracy,” said Anthony Ashton, the senior associate general counsel at the NAACP.