Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Sep 6: A US federal judge has extended a block on President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting, dealing another legal setback to the administration less than two months before the November midterm elections.
District Judge Indira Talwani, an Indian-American jurist, issued a preliminary injunction on Friday preventing the US Postal Service (USPS) from implementing the new mail-voting procedures.
The ruling came as North Carolina began sending mail-in ballots to voters for the November 3 elections.
### Judge warns of disenfranchisement
Talwani, who had earlier temporarily halted the order, said states did not have sufficient time to overhaul their election systems before ballots were due to be mailed.
She noted that states were legally required to send millions of ballots within prescribed timelines and could not make major changes this late in the election cycle without risking the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
The latest ruling followed a lawsuit filed by a coalition of **24 state attorneys general** challenging Trump’s voting order.
### What Trump’s order proposes
Trump signed the executive order in March calling for a nationwide system to verify voters eligible to receive mail-in ballots.
Under the proposed system, USPS would work with states to compile lists of eligible mail voters and deliver ballots only to people included on those lists.
The administration has argued that tighter controls are necessary to protect elections from fraud. Critics and voting-rights groups, however, have challenged the president’s authority to impose the changes.
No state has so far announced plans to voluntarily adopt the proposed system.
### Administration expected to appeal
The Trump administration had already challenged Talwani’s earlier ruling before the US Supreme Court and is expected to appeal Friday’s injunction as well.
The Supreme Court overturned Talwani’s previous block last month, but the conservative majority did not decide whether Trump’s executive order itself was lawful.
Instead, the court found that the legal challenge had been brought before USPS formally issued rules detailing how it would implement the order.
After USPS issued its rule, the states and voting-rights groups renewed their legal challenge, bringing the matter back before Talwani.
### USPS raises implementation concerns
The postal service has also raised concerns about whether it has the technology required to implement the administration’s plan.
A USPS whistleblower warned earlier this week of potentially serious problems, saying systems being prepared to administer the new procedures had been developed hastily and could result in millions of voters failing to receive their mail-in ballots.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-led the coalition of states challenging the order, welcomed Talwani’s ruling, saying it would keep the proposed USPS changes blocked while the case proceeds.
### Mail voting becomes election flashpoint
Trump has repeatedly criticised mail-in voting and claimed, without evidence, that the system is vulnerable to widespread fraud. He has also linked mail voting to his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Despite his criticism, Trump has himself used mail-in voting, including during a Republican primary in Florida.
The legal battle comes as Republicans seek to retain their narrow control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
Democrats have indicated that winning control of Congress could enable them to block Trump’s agenda and potentially pursue impeachment proceedings.