The initial ballots for the midterm elections have been dispatched.
This past Thursday, the Trump administration submitted an urgent request to the Supreme Court, seeking to lift a lower court’s stay on its new rules for postal ballots. On Friday, North Carolina, one of the states challenging the administration, began sending out ballots.
Over 46,000 ballots have been sent out in North Carolina, but only to those who specifically requested them. The process will continue until all requests for mail-in ballots received by October 20 are fulfilled.
Jason Tyson, who oversees external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, mentioned in a conversation with Blaze News that this was standard procedure for the state.
Tyson remarked, “Every election year, we share our absentee ballot envelopes with the U.S. Postal Service. We sent those out two or three weeks ago, and they were approved. This is nothing out of the ordinary; it’s how we do things every year.”
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is presently under Republican control.
Nineteen additional states are expected to start mailing ballots by September 19. For the new rules from the Trump administration to be enacted before the midterms, the Supreme Court would need to swiftly issue an emergency ruling favoring the administration.
The Trump administration is actively advocating for its case.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis stated that the situation stems from “a single activist judge.”
“The uncertainty is a result of this judge’s attempts to obstruct President Trump’s efforts to implement common-sense measures intended to safeguard the integrity of mail-in ballots and confirm that only Americans participate in U.S. elections,” she said. “These precautions for mail ballots were proposed months in advance, allowing election officials sufficient time to prepare for the 2026 election.”
Though she didn’t specify, it’s clear that U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who was appointed by Obama, has posed challenges for the administration concerning mail-in ballots.
This battle began back in March when President Trump issued an executive order revamping the mailing process, which mandated that each ballot envelope include a unique tracking barcode. These ballots were to be issued based on a “Mail-in Ballot and Absentee Participation List” created by individual states.
Trump claimed, “The cheating associated with mail-in voting is legendary. The extent of what’s happened is just horrendous… I think implementing these measures will significantly help future elections,” while signing the order in March.
Judge Talwani initially nullified the envelope rules on June 25, preventing their application for the midterms. On July 27, the Department of Justice requested emergency intervention from the Supreme Court to lift Talwani’s injunction, which was later granted without the court addressing the legality of the executive order.
On August 11, Talwani issued a nationwide injunction preventing the Postal Service from enforcing the executive order across the country.
On August 26, the USPS announced a final rule requiring states to provide a list of mail-in ballot recipients and use approved envelopes. However, the following day, Talwani issued a 14-day injunction to halt the enforcement of this final rule.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer appealed to the Supreme Court to lift this latest injunction, labeling mail-in ballot fraud as “a particularly insidious type of fraud that dilutes legitimate votes” in his emergency filing.
Sauer has previously criticized Talwani, accusing her of “creating confusion and chaos” as Election Day draws near.
Currently, it’s unclear whether states must submit their mail-in ballot recipient lists to the federal government before the midterms, or how they would manage to do so on such short notice.
