Trump admin renews Supreme Court ask to let mail ballot rule to take effect ahead of midterms

President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday again asked the Supreme Court to allow the US Postal Service plan for mail ballots to take effect immediately, a mostly procedural move that nonetheless underscores the president’s desire to restrict mail voting during the critical midterm elections.

The Supreme Court was already considering an emergency appeal filed by the USPS on Sept. 3 that urged the justices to allow the agency to implement the new ballot rule ahead of the November elections that will determine which party controls Congress. In that appeal, the USPS asked the Supreme Court to stay a temporary restraining order from US District Judge Indira Talwani that barred the agency from moving forward for two weeks.

On Friday, a day after the Justice Department filed that appeal, Talwani ruled again, handing down a preliminary injunction. That subsequent order blocked the USPS plan indefinitely. It is that second, indefinite block on the plan that the administration appealed to the Supreme Court on Sunday. Shortly after filing the second appeal on Sunday, the administration withdrew the first case.

Trump asks Supreme Court to OK sweeping changes for mail ballots

In a letter to the court on Sunday, the Justice Department said it had filed the new appeal out of “an abundance of caution” and that it withdrew the first case “to simplify proceedings.”

For voters and states, the difference between the cases will make little or no difference.

The high court is being asked to rule with an extraordinarily quick timeline on an effort by the administration to give the USPS an unprecedented role in elections. North Carolina has already begun mailing out ballots. Alabama will begin doing so on Sept. 9. At least five additional states will begin mailing ballots on September 13, according to the Justice Department.

“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” the Justice Department told the Supreme Court in its filing on Sunday. “And while the injunction allows the Postal Service and the states to continue taking steps to ensure that their envelopes satisfy the rule’s requirements, each day the injunction is in place risks sowing confusion and chaos because the injunction makes those preparatory steps voluntary, rather than mandatory.”

The USPS rule would require state and local election officials to upload lists of their mail voters to a portal. It would also require election officials to use special barcodes on the envelopes to ease tracking of that mail. Many election officials have argued that it’s already too late to implement those requirements.

It’s unclear if the new filing from the Trump administration will change the timeline of the case. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who handles emergency appeals rising from the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals, had required the states to respond to the first appeal on Tuesday. With that case now withdrawn, she may keep that deadline, or she may push it back shortly.

周日，唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府再次要求最高法院允许美国邮政局的邮寄选票计划立即生效。这一举动主要属于程序性举措，但也凸显了总统希望在关键的中期选举期间限制邮寄投票的愿望。

最高法院此前已在审理美国邮政总局 (USPS) 于 9 月 3 日提交的紧急上诉，该上诉敦促大法官们允许该机构在 11 月大选前实施新的选票规则，此次大选将决定哪个党派控制国会。在该上诉中，美国邮政总局请求最高法院暂缓执行美国地区法官英迪拉·塔尔瓦尼 (Indira Talwani) 发布的临时限制令，该限制令禁止该机构在两周内推进相关工作。

周五，也就是司法部提起上诉的第二天，塔尔瓦尼法官再次作出裁决，发布了初步禁令。该禁令无限期地阻止了美国邮政署的计划。正是针对这项第二次无限期禁令，政府于周日向最高法院提起上诉。在周日提交第二次上诉后不久，政府撤回了第一次上诉。

特朗普要求最高法院批准对邮寄选票进行全面改革

司法部周日致函法院表示，提起新的上诉是出于“高度谨慎”，撤回第一起案件是为了“简化诉讼程序”。

对于选民和各州而言，这些案件之间的差异几乎不会产生任何影响。

最高法院被要求在极短的时间内就政府试图赋予美国邮政署在选举中前所未有的角色这一举措作出裁决。北卡罗来纳州已经开始邮寄选票。阿拉巴马州将于9月9日开始邮寄。据司法部称，至少还有五个州将于9月13日开始邮寄选票。

“一旦这些选票信封进入邮寄流程，就无法追回，”司法部在周日提交给最高法院的文件中表示。“虽然禁令允许邮政部门和各州继续采取措施，确保其信封符合规定要求，但禁令生效的每一天都可能造成混乱，因为禁令使这些准备步骤成为自愿的，而不是强制性的。”

美国邮政总局的这项规定将要求州和地方选举官员把邮寄选民名单上传到一个门户网站。该规定还将要求选举官员在信封上使用特殊的条形码，以便于追踪邮件。许多选举官员认为，现在实施这些要求已经为时过晚。

目前尚不清楚特朗普政府提交的新文件是否会改变案件的审理时间表。负责处理来自波士顿第一巡回上诉法院紧急上诉案件的凯坦吉·布朗·杰克逊法官此前要求各州在周二对第一次上诉作出回应。鉴于该案现已撤回，她可能会维持原定的最后期限，也可能很快将其推迟。