Another Judge Blocks USPS From Implementing New Mail-In Ballot Rule

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Sept. 13 that blocks the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing its requirements to tighten mail-in voting rules.

Under the rule, states must supply the agency with lists of mail ballot recipients, and all outbound and return ballot envelopes must bear unique barcodes. It also allows the Postal Service to refuse to deliver ballots that do not comply with the new standards.

In a 24-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the Postal Service had likely exceeded the authority granted by Congress when issuing the rule. He said that the government had failed to provide any evidence that halting the USPS mail-in voting rule would result in significant fraud in the upcoming elections.

"The key portions of the rule exceed any conception of the outer bounds of these authorities," Nichols said in the ruling.

"Nothing in the Postal Reorganization Act authorizes the Postal Service to impose new election procedures on state election officials, to create a data collection system for mail-in and absentee voters, or to refuse the transmission of lawful mail because it fails to meet these data collection requirements."

The Postal Service issued the final rule on Aug. 21 to implement an executive order President Donald Trump signed in March. In the order, Trump wrote that the federal government had a duty to maintain public confidence in election outcomes and that additional measures were needed to enhance election integrity through U.S. mail.

The Trump administration previously said the executive order would help to keep federal elections honest.

The Department of Justice argued on Aug. 31 that the USPS rule is "a regulation of the U.S. mail, and a modest one at that - not a federal takeover of election administration by the Postal Service."

The judge on Sunday also found that the rule would increase the risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots would not be counted in the upcoming elections.

"The harm of untransmitted ballots - both to voters and candidates - is irreversible, because 'once the election occurs, there can be no do-over and no redress,'" Nichols said.

The Epoch Times reached out to USPS for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

A federal appeals court on Sept. 10 declined to pause an injunction issued Sept. 4 by Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, which extended a temporary restraining order issued on Aug. 27 that halted key parts of the Postal Service's final rule.

The Supreme Court is currently considering the government's appeal of the order.