‘Theatrical’ litigation: Republican AGs fight for Trump voting rules that their election officials say they can’t implement

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Republican attorneys general have shown their support for President Donald Trump’s election agenda by pressing courts to greenlight his proposed crackdown on mail voting.

But election officials in at least half of those states have said that they won’t be able to comply with proposed US Postal Service mandates in time, according to court filings and interviews with CNN.

Moreover, in those states, Republican-leaning counties may ultimately face steeper hurdles than Democratic ones, election officials of both parties say.

In several of the states, local officials have received no guidance from their state election chiefs on how they should prepare for the possibility that the new rules – which could require the replacement of thousands of ballot envelopes and a major reallocation of staff resources so that voter lists can be submitted to USPS – would suddenly be imposed.

In some of the states currently arguing in favor of the Trump ballot restrictions, local election officials have been told to operate as if the rules won’t be put into place this year.

“There’s a suggestion on the election administration side that no one really thinks this is going to be implemented,” said Derek Muller, an elections law professor at Notre Dame. “And a lot of the litigation is just theatrical at this point.”

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The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming days on whether to allow for the midterms a plan pushed by Trump for USPS to only deliver ballots for states that meet certain requirements. While the legal challengers — which include 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia — have put forward extensive evidence that the rules would cause extreme chaos and mass disenfranchisement if implemented this year, the administration is leaning on barebones assurances from Republican state officials that the panic is overblown.

The state-level effort to boost Trump in the legal fight is being led by Missouri and Texas, two attorneys general offices that have close ties to the administration. The administration has pointed to an August 29 court declaration by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, in which he vaguely asserted that he “believed” implementation of the rules was “possible” this year.

However, multiple Missouri election clerks said that if courts reanimated Trump’s plan, they would struggle to comply with its requirements. Envelopes used by several counties currently lack the unique bar codes for each voter that facilitate automated tracking – a feature that would be required, under Trump’s directives, for the USPS to deliver those ballots.

Even if those counties had the time and the money to replace their current envelopes, the one vendor in the Missouri who could print envelopes with those barcodes has indicated that it is not taking any new clients for the midterms, two Missouri election clerks told CNN.

“I don’t think our secretary of state or our president are really understanding … this hurts our Republican counties a lot more than it hurts our blue counties,” said Kurt Bahr, the elections clerk for St. Charles County, Missouri.

Several Democratic counties in Missouri already use vendors that allow them to comply with the Trump requirement that ballot envelopes have unique bar codes for each voter. Bahr believes he is the only Republican county official in the state who used that vendor as well.

Scott County clerk Allen Seabaugh said that, because he likely won’t be able to print envelopes in compliance with the rules, there was a possibility that he would physically drive absentee ballots to the 100 voters in his county who are on the permanent disability list for mail voting. But he would not be able to deliver ballots for people who have permission to vote absentee because they will be outside of the county during the election.

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In response to CNN’s inquiries, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office said that she “supports the Trump Administration’s commonsense reforms to improve the integrity of mail voting,”while Hoskins acknowledged the current time crunch in a statement Friday.

“Obviously, time is of the essence,” Hoskins said. “While implementation could cause some issues, we are willing to work to implement any part of the president’s plan that is feasible with the short time constraints.”

The Missouri clerks association, joined by several GOP elections officials, laid out the challenges of following the demands of the USPS regulations in an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court this week. Among the signers were the Republican secretaries of state in South Dakota and Kansas – both states with attorneys general that are asking courts to impose Trump’s mail voting restrictions now.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office did not respond to CNN’s inquiry. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley provided a statement expressing his support for the Trump directives for how they “would prevent sending mail-in-ballots to individuals who are noncitizens or not registered to vote.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court will provide guidance to state election officials on implementation, and I have confidence in the ability of state election officials to implement the guidelines that the Supreme Court will provide,” Jackley said.

“These states have wanted to signal their support of the administration and that’s been the through line for the last few months on this,” Muller told CNN. “Whether that cashes out on how this upcoming election is administered is besides the point. They’re really just being supportive of the president – being along for the ride for whatever happens at this point.”

Local election officials told CNN that, ironically, large, urban counties – often, the Democratic pockets in Republican states – would likely face fewer hurdles in following Trump’s rules, because their mail ballot programs are more sophisticated and already meet some of the USPS requirements.

In Florida, another state backing Trump in the legal challenges to his rules, election supervisors overseeing Palm Beach County and the Tampa area already meet those requirements, while local officials in deep red parts of the Florida panhandle told CNN they would need to scramble to reprint their envelopes.

“At this point it would be very difficult to replace them,” said Travis Hart, the elections supervisor of Lafayette County, Florida, adding that it was “not going to be good” if the USPS plan went into effect.

The offices of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Secretary of State Cord Byrd did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. Local election officials said they did not expect that Byrd’s office would advise them on what to do if the requirements were put into place by the Supreme Court. Ballots in Florida – where about a third of voters cast ballots by mail, the president among them – start going out on September 24.

“Everything is left up to us to make happen,” Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux told CNN.

In Texas, counties big and small have signed onto court filings telling judges that the rules would be impossible to implement this year. The offices of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also running for US Senate, and Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden did not respond to CNN’s inquiries.

Nebraska’s Democratic-leaning Lancaster County, which includes Lincoln, uses absentee ballot envelopes that already contain the unique bar codes. But Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said many of the state’s other counties — particularly the rural counties — would not be in compliance.

“There are 11 counties that are all vote by mail in Nebraska. I don’t know how they’d be able to comply with that provision,” Wiltgen said. “The vast majority of the smaller counties don’t have the resources.”

Tracy Overstreet, the election commissioner in Hall County in central Nebraska, said that the Nebraska secretary of state’s office has told counties to proceed with the election as planned, though the state’s attorney general is advocating for the new rule changes in the USPS litigation.

Overstreet told CNN that the changes under the rules are simply not possible to make when ballots are set to be mailed later this month.

“It’s not doable. Nebraska will not be in compliance, because we can’t change envelopes,” Overstreet said. “The mail house that we use here in Hall County in central Nebraska doesn’t even have that capability. Most of the state does not.”

A spokeswoman for Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen declined to comment. The office of Attorney General Mike Hilgers did not respond to requests for comment.

State officials in Indiana, another state backing Trump’s mandates, have not given local officials any guidance on how those mandates would be implemented, according to Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell. A spokesperson for Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales did not respond to CNN’s inquiry, nor did Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.

“It would not be possible to implement it,” Sweeney Bell, a Democrat, told CNN. “Right now, it’s a waste of time because there is so much more work that we have to do. We don’t have time for Donald Trump’s fantasies right now. And we will deal with it, but only if we absolutely have to.”

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共和党籍州检察长们通过向法院施压，要求批准唐纳德·特朗普总统提出的打击邮寄投票的计划，以此表达了他们对特朗普总统选举议程的支持。

但据法庭文件和 CNN 的采访显示，至少有一半州的选举官员表示，他们无法及时遵守美国邮政署提出的强制性规定。

此外，两党选举官员均表示，在这些州，共和党倾向的县最终可能面临比民主党倾向的县更大的障碍。

在一些州，地方官员尚未收到州选举负责人关于如何应对新规可能突然实施的指导意见。新规可能需要更换数千个选票信封，并大幅重新分配工作人员资源，以便将选民名单提交给美国邮政服务。

在一些目前支持特朗普选票限制的州，当地选举官员已被告知，要像今年不会实施这些规则一样开展工作。

“选举管理方面有人暗示，没人真正认为这项措施会得到落实，”圣母大学选举法教授德里克·穆勒说。“而且，目前很多诉讼都只是作秀而已。”

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最高法院预计将在未来几天内就特朗普力推的一项计划是否允许在中期选举中实施做出裁决。该计划要求美国邮政署只向符合特定条件的州投递选票。尽管包括23个民主党执政的州和哥伦比亚特区在内的法律挑战者提出了大量证据，证明如果这项规定在今年实施，将导致极度混乱和大规模剥夺选民投票权，但特朗普政府却依赖于共和党州官员的空洞保证，即恐慌情绪被夸大了。

在法律战中支持特朗普的州级行动由密苏里州和德克萨斯州牵头，这两个州的检察长办公室都与特朗普政府关系密切。特朗普政府援引了密苏里州州务卿、共和党人丹尼·霍斯金斯8月29日提交的一份法庭声明，其中霍斯金斯含糊地声称他“相信”这些规则今年“有可能”得到实施。

然而，多位密苏里州选举官员表示，如果法院恢复特朗普的计划，他们将难以遵守其要求。目前，一些县使用的信封缺少每位选民的唯一条形码，而条形码是实现自动追踪所必需的——根据特朗普的指示，美国邮政署必须使用条形码才能投递这些选票。

密苏里州的两名选举工作人员告诉 CNN，即使这些县有时间和金钱来更换他们目前的信封，密苏里州唯一一家能够打印带有这些条形码信封的供应商也表示，他们不会接受任何新的中期选举客户。

“我认为我们的国务卿或总统并没有真正理解……这对我们共和党控制的县造成的伤害远大于对我们民主党控制的县造成的伤害，”密苏里州圣查尔斯县的选举官员库尔特·巴尔说道。

密苏里州的几个民主党县已经使用供应商来满足特朗普的要求，即每个选票信封都必须有唯一的条形码。巴尔认为，他是该州唯一一位也使用这家供应商的共和党县官员。

斯科特县书记员艾伦·西博格表示，由于他可能无法按照规定印制信封，他可能会亲自开车将缺席选票送到该县100名因永久残疾而无法邮寄投票的选民手中。但他无法为那些已获准缺席投票的选民递送选票，因为他们在选举期间将不在本县。

Liz Rymarev/Pool/圣路易斯邮报/美联社

针对 CNN 的询问，密苏里州总检察长凯瑟琳·哈纳威的办公室表示，她“支持特朗普政府为提高邮寄投票的公正性而进行的常识性改革”，而霍斯金斯在周五的一份声明中承认了目前时间紧迫的问题。

霍斯金斯说：“显然，时间至关重要。虽然实施过程中可能会出现一些问题，但我们愿意努力落实总统计划中任何在时间紧迫的情况下可行的部分。”

密苏里州书记员协会联合几位共和党选举官员，本周向最高法院提交了一份法庭之友意见陈述书，阐述了遵守美国邮政总局规定的种种挑战。签署者中包括南达科他州和堪萨斯州的共和党籍州务卿——这两个州的司法部长都要求法院立即执行特朗普的邮寄投票限制措施。

堪萨斯州总检察长克里斯·科巴赫的办公室没有回应CNN的询问。南达科他州总检察长马蒂·杰克利发表声明，表示支持特朗普的指令，认为这些指令“将阻止向非公民或未登记投票的人邮寄选票”。

杰克利说：“美国最高法院将为各州选举官员提供实施指导，我对各州选举官员执行最高法院提供的指导方针的能力充满信心。”

穆勒告诉CNN：“这些州一直想表明他们对本届政府的支持，这在过去几个月里一直是贯穿始终的主线。至于这是否会对即将到来的选举产生实际影响，目前还无关紧要。他们实际上只是在支持总统——无论接下来会发生什么，他们都愿意随波逐流。”

当地选举官员告诉 CNN，具有讽刺意味的是，大型城市县（通常是共和党州中的民主党据点）在遵守特朗普的规则时可能会遇到较少的障碍，因为他们的邮寄选票计划更加完善，并且已经满足了美国邮政的一些要求。

佛罗里达州是另一个支持特朗普对其规则提起法律挑战的州，负责棕榈滩县和坦帕地区的选举监督员已经满足了这些要求，而佛罗里达州狭长地带深红地区的当地官员告诉 CNN，他们需要紧急重新印制信封。

“在这一点上，要取代他们是非常困难的，”佛罗里达州拉斐特县选举主管特拉维斯·哈特说，并补充说，如果美国邮政总局的计划生效，“情况不会好”。

佛罗里达州总检察长詹姆斯·乌斯迈尔和州务卿科德·伯德的办公室均未回应CNN的问询。当地选举官员表示，他们预计伯德的办公室不会就最高法院若实施相关规定时应如何应对提供建议。佛罗里达州约有三分之一的选民通过邮寄方式投票，其中包括总统选举，该州的选票将于9月24日开始寄出。

“一切都取决于我们自己去实现，”奥卡卢萨县选举监督员保罗·卢克斯告诉 CNN。

在德克萨斯州，无论大小县都已签署法庭文件，告知法官这些规定今年根本无法实施。德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿（他同时也在竞选美国参议员）和德克萨斯州州务卿罗伯特·豪登的办公室均未回应CNN的问询。

内布拉斯加州倾向民主党的兰开斯特县（包括林肯市）使用的缺席选票信封上已经印有独特的条形码。但兰开斯特县选举专员托德·威尔特根表示，该州其他许多县——尤其是农村县——将无法遵守这一规定。

“内布拉斯加州有11个县全部采用邮寄投票。我不知道他们如何才能遵守这项规定，”威尔特根说。“绝大多数小县都没有足够的资源。”

内布拉斯加州中部霍尔县的选举专员特雷西·奥弗斯特里特表示，内布拉斯加州州务卿办公室已告知各县按计划进行选举，尽管该州总检察长正在美国邮政总局的诉讼中倡导新的规则变更。

奥弗斯特里特告诉 CNN，根据规则，在本月晚些时候邮寄选票的情况下，这些更改根本不可能实现。

“这行不通。内布拉斯加州无法遵守规定，因为我们无法更换信封，”奥弗斯特里特说。“我们在内布拉斯加州中部霍尔县使用的这家邮件处理公司甚至没有这种能力。该州大部分地区都没有。”

内布拉斯加州州务卿罗伯特·埃夫宁的发言人拒绝置评。州检察长迈克·希尔格斯的办公室也未回应置评请求。

据马里恩县书记员凯特·斯威尼·贝尔称，印第安纳州（另一个支持特朗普强制令的州）的州政府官员并未就如何执行这些强制令向地方官员提供任何指导。印第安纳州州务卿迭戈·莫拉莱斯的发言人以及印第安纳州总检察长托德·罗基塔均未回应CNN的问询。

“这根本不可能实施，”民主党人斯威尼·贝尔告诉CNN。“现在这样做纯属浪费时间，因为我们还有太多工作要做。我们现在没时间理会唐纳德·特朗普的幻想。我们会处理这件事，但只有在万不得已的情况下才会这样做。”