US Supreme Court temporarily blocks Trump's restrictions on mail-in voting

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s restrictions on mail-in ballots, bringing to a close a series of last-minute legal maneuvers as the midterm elections’ voting process had already begun.

The Trump administration had asked the court, which once again found itself at the center of a heated political controversy, to pave the way for imposing the restrictions before the crucial November elections, which will determine control of Congress. The case carries significant implications, as nearly one-third of the country’s voters cast their ballots by mail.

Election officials said there was simply no way to implement sweeping changes in the weeks leading up to the midterms. Indeed, states including Alabama, North Carolina, and Wisconsin had already begun mailing ballots to voters during the previous week, before the new rules had taken effect.

Under the Trump administration’s plan, states would have been required to adopt a standardized envelope format and submit lists of eligible voters to an electronic portal. The Postal Service could have refused to deliver ballots to states that failed to comply with these requirements.