The first ballots of the midterm elections have left the building.
The Trump administration filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court on Thursday asking the court to remove a lower court’s stay on the administration’s new postal ballot rules. North Carolina, one of the states suing the administration, sent out ballots on Friday.
‘The cheating on mail-in ballots is legendary.’
More than 46,000 North Carolina ballots have been sent out, though only to those who specifically requested them. Those shipments will continue until all requests for mail-in ballots made by October 20 are fulfilled.
Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, told Blaze News that this was business as usual for the state.
“Regardless of a temporary restraining order or any kind of action there, every election year we do share our envelopes — absentee ballot envelopes — with the U.S. Postal Service,” Tyson said. “We did share our envelopes with the United States Postal Service about two or three weeks ago. They were approved. That’s very normal. Nothing that we’ve done just for this year.”
The NCSBE is currently controlled by Republicans.
Nineteen other states will begin mailing ballots by September 19. For the Trump administration’s new rules to have a chance at taking effect before the midterms, the Supreme Court would need to issue an emergency judgment in the White House’s favor quickly.
The administration is already making its case.
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U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer.Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images
According to White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis, the problem boils down to “a single activist judge.”
“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing common-sense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” Bis told Blaze News. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago, giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”
Bis did not mention any names, but Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has certainly caused fits for the administration regarding mail-in ballots.
President Donald Trump kicked off the battle in March, when he issued an executive order overhauling the mailing system itself, requiring that every envelope be outfitted with a unique tracking barcode. According to the order, those ballots would then be issued to voters confirmed by a “Mail-in Ballot and Absentee Participation List” organized by each state.
“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s gone on. It’s very clearly covered. … I think this will help a lot with elections,” Trump said when signing the order in March.
Talwani initially voided the envelope rules on June 25, barring them from applying to the midterms. The DOJ asked the Supreme Court for emergency intervention on July 27 to lift Talwani’s injunction, which SCOTUS eventually granted without addressing the legality of the EO.
On August 11, Talwani issued a nationwide injunction preventing the USPS from implementing the executive order nationwide.
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Alex Wong/Getty Images
On August 26, the USPS issued its final rule saying states must give the agency a list of mail-in ballot recipients and use-approved envelopes, but the following day, Talwani issued a 14-day injunction preventing the final rule from taking effect.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift that most recent injunction. Sauer called mail-in ballot fraud “a particularly pernicious species of fraud that dilutes the votes of lawful voters” in his emergency filing.
Sauer previously chastised Talwani, claiming she was “sowing confusion and chaos” as Election Day approaches.
As of now, it is unclear whether states will have to submit the list of mail-in ballot recipients to the federal government before the midterms or how they might go about doing so with so little time.
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