NOTE: The Maryland Office of the Attorney General shared the following press release:
BALTIMORE – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and a coalition of 25 states have secured a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, temporarily blocking a new rule by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that would have imposed burdensome requirements on vote-by-mail systems ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
The order blocks USPS from requiring states to obtain the federal government’s approval of ballot and return-envelope designs, register for a new USPS portal for tracking voter information, input information for each of their state’s voters into the portal, and comply with other provisions.
The court found that compliance with the rule before the November elections was “practically impossible,” noting that states do not have the time to redesign and produce new ballots, update state-administered election systems, train state and local election officials, and upload a massive set of voter information to a new federal portal.
The court found that these requirements created a significant risk of disenfranchisement, particularly because USPS’s rule neither provided a deadline to the states for ballot and envelope designs nor guaranteed a turnaround time for USPS’s approval of those designs. The court concluded that states face irreparable harm because many had already ordered their ballots, with some states required by state law to begin sending them to voters as early as next week.
“This is a critical first step in stopping an unlawful rule that would have imposed last-minute federal requirements on state mail voting systems and put eligible voters at risk of having their ballots delayed or rejected,” said Attorney General Brown. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, and my Office will keep fighting until this unlawful attack is permanently blocked.”
On March 31, President Trump issued an Executive Order attempting to establish a national list of eligible voters and directing the U.S. Postal Service to transmit mail ballots only to voters on the list. On August 21, USPS announced a new rule implementing the President’s demands that require states to register every voter who is eligible to vote by mail with USPS and tasking USPS with compiling the registered voters into state-specific lists. The rule also establishes new design requirements for the mail-in ballot envelopes created by states, which states are required to meet and get approved by USPS. Under the rule, USPS will not deliver ballots to voters who do not appear on the USPS-generated lists and will not deliver ballots in envelopes that fail to comply with the rule’s new standards.
On August 26, Attorney General Brownjoined a coalition of 25 states in filing a lawsuit to block the unlawful rule. The coalition now seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the rule from taking effect while the lawsuit proceeds and until a final court decision is made.
With the start of the general election season mere weeks away, the coalition argued the rule inflicts significant, irreparable harm on states by imposing burdensome mail voting requirements that risk disenfranchising eligible voters. The coalition argues that USPS’s rule upends successful, longstanding vote-by-mail procedures and violates federal statutes and the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections.
Attorney General Brown was joined in filing this lawsuit, which was co-led by the attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington, by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.