A federal judge in Boston has temporarily blocked the US Postal Service from carrying out a plan, issued under an executive order from President Trump, that could limit mail voting.
Democratic states and voter advocacy groups challenging the recently released USPS rules were granted a temporary restraining order for two weeks late Thursday night.
“Through the Final Rule, the USPS is refusing to send mail ballots to eligible voters unless States or local election officials submit their mail ballot envelopes and return envelopes and receive advance approval from the USPS without regard to impending deadlines for the November 3, 2026 election,” Judge Indira Talwani wrote in her ruling.
The challengers, she added, are likely to win on their claims that the rule is unconstitutional and that the USPS lacks authority to issue it in the first place.
“Plaintiff States have neither time nor funds to design new mail ballots, seek approval of the new designs, order production of mail ballots, update their own election management systems, train election officials to use the USPS portal, and upload citizen data to the portal, all before the midterms,” wrote Talwani, a nominee of President Barack Obama.
