Trump asks Supreme Court to uphold mail-in voting order

By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to uphold an executive order placing restrictions on mail-in voting.

A federal judge in Massachusetts issued an order on June 25 blocking the Trump administration from implementing mail-in ballot restrictions nationwide. Trump’s order would direct the Department of Homeland Security to compile “state citizenship lists.”

The lists would contain all citizens who are 18 years old or older by Election Day in each state.

A group of 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to prevent the order from going into effect. Judge Indira Talwani allowed all 23 states to be exempt from the order.

Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the lists have yet to be implemented in any state and the order should not be valid, since there was no harm incurred by the involved parties.

“The respondent States have not suffered any cognizable injury caused by the Executive Order, because the Order itself does not affect their election processes at all, and it is entirely speculative whether and how any agency implementation may do so,” Sauer said.

The Trump administration’s request comes after justices on the high court overturned a bid from the Republican National Convention to prevent states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day as long as it was postmarked by Election Day.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia accept mail-in ballots after Election Day. In Illinois, ballots received up to two weeks after Election Day can be counted as long as it is postmarked by Election Day.

Justices on the high court gave the states involved until 4 p.m. Eastern on Monday, Aug. 3, to respond to the government’s request.

“Even if the agencies’ implementation plans end up being entirely lawful, there will not be sufficient time to obtain appellate relief before the November election,” Sauer wrote.