Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow Federal Takeover of Mail-In Voting Before Midterms

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court this week to let President Donald Trump’s executive order stand — an order that would put federal agencies in charge of who receives a mail ballot in November’s midterm elections.

The Justice Department wants the high court to halt lower-court rulings that blocked the changes in nearly half the country. Trump’s March order would create a federal “state citizenship list” and let the U.S. Postal Service deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia sued, arguing the Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — the authority to set election rules. A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the order in the plaintiff states. A divided appeals panel left that block in place over the weekend.

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The order tells U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration to send state officials federal citizenship lists to determine eligible voters. It tells the Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists. It also calls for ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking.

Federal funding could be withheld from states and localities that don’t comply.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the order lays out “general policy guidance” and doesn’t directly dictate how states run elections. He called the lower-court ruling “indefensible,” writing that “the agencies are still deliberating over how (if at all) to implement the Order, yet the district court preemptively decided that whatever the agencies may choose to do will necessarily be unlawful.”

Sauer asked the court to move quickly. Any new policies would need to be in place by August to work for November’s elections, he wrote. A response is due August 3.

Trump has targeted mail balloting for years, blaming it for his 2020 loss to Joe Biden and calling it — without evidence — a path to fraud. He returned to that theme this week at a Michigan General Motors facility, calling mail ballots “inherently corrupt.”

About 30% of all ballots in the 2024 presidential election were cast by mail, according to federal data. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

The Supreme Court has ruled against the Trump administration before on mail-in ballots, finding in June that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, nominated by President Barack Obama, agreed in June to halt implementation for the November elections. Her ruling differed from that of U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, who was appointed by Trump and found in May that it was too early to block the order because it hadn’t been implemented yet.

Trump has promoted the changes as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting. Noncitizen voting has been shown to be rare and is a felony punishable by deportation.

The Breakdown

• Trump’s March executive order would require federal agencies to create a “state citizenship list” and allow the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.
• The order would require ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking.
• Federal funding could be withheld from states and localities that don’t comply.
• 23 states and D.C. sued, arguing the Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — the power to set election rules.
• A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the order; an appeals panel upheld that block over the weekend.
• The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to freeze the lower-court ruling while lawsuits play out.
• Any new policies would need to be in place by August to take effect for November’s midterm elections.

What This Means for You

This case asks whether a president can change how you cast a ballot — a question that reaches into every congressional, state, and local race on your November ballot. The Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules. The Postal Service would be directed to deliver ballots only to people on a federal citizenship list, which could affect who receives a mail ballot even if state rules say they’re eligible.

Whether you trust that list, and whether you trust a president to control it, is a judgment you’re being asked to make about this administration and any future one.

What to Watch

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to move quickly — any new policies would need to be in place by August to work for November’s elections. The court could act within days or weeks. A response from the states is due August 3.

This is also a test of the court itself. The Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration on mail-in ballots in June, finding that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day. The question now is whether the court will hold that line — that states set election rules — or carve out an exception for federal control when the executive branch frames it as preventing fraud.

The fraud claim itself is worth weighing against the evidence: a 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast. Noncitizen voting — the justification Trump has given for the order — has been shown to be rare and is already a felony punishable by deportation. The question is whether preventing an already-rare problem justifies changing the authority the Constitution gives states to run their own elections.