US appeals court blocks president from carrying out mail-in ballot order

A federal appeals court on Saturday refused to let the Trump administration roll out an executive order across 23 states that would impose stricter controls on mail ballots before the November congressional elections.

The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston denied the administration's bid to lift an injunction that several Democratic-led states won on June 25 from a lower-court judge who found major portions of the order unconstitutional.

The Justice Department had told the appeals court that lawsuits against the order were premature because agencies had not yet finished the steps needed to put the directive into effect.

In a 2-1 decision the appeals court rejected that position.

"As the district court reasoned, the order sets out a clear set of rapidly approaching deadlines by which states must coordinate with federal officials and comply with new voting procedures - all while the states must also ensure that their officials and the public understand the evolving set of rules that would govern the upcoming September and November elections," the judges wrote. "The Plaintiff States have no practical choice but to respond to the order now."

Earlier a federal judge in Washington had dismissed a similar Democratic challenge on comparable grounds. The Justice Department said it might now seek intervention from the US Supreme Court.

Trump cites fraud claims from 2020 loss

Trump issued the order in March after repeatedly demanding tighter mail-voting rules and repeating the false assertion that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election. The Constitution leaves election administration to the states.

The order adds to other Trump efforts to change election procedures. He has pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a package of voting limits. Courts have already halted an earlier order that required proof of citizenship for voter registration and limited mail-ballot counting.

The March directive instructed the Department of Homeland Security to create and send states lists of confirmed US citizens eligible to vote, drawn from citizenship records and other federal databases.

It also required the Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on each state's approved mail list. USPS has begun drafting rules that would oblige states to supply names and barcodes for mail ballots.

The order further directed the Justice Department to focus on investigating and prosecuting state and local officials who send federal ballots to people considered ineligible.

Judge rules president lacks authority to pressure officials

Judge Indira Talwani, siding with 23 states and the District of Columbia led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington, ruled that the president had no power to order DHS to compile voter lists and that the Postal Service lacked statutory authority to issue binding mail-voting regulations.

The Obama-appointed judge added that Trump could not use the order "to intimidate local election officials to use the necessarily incomplete confirmed citizenship lists as a resource, lest they face criminal prosecution."