North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson on Monday applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to block new mail-in voting restrictions proposed by the Trump administration, calling the eleventh-hour changes “a recipe for chaos.”
“We appreciate the Court recognizing the practical reality of the situation,” Jackson said in a statement. “Voting has begun. You don’t change the rules in the middle of the election.”
North Carolina and about two-dozen other states last month sued the U.S. Postal Service over the proposed restrictions which President Trump laid out in an executive order in March.
The order required states to submit lists of eligible voters to the federal government and instructed the Postal Service to only send mail-in ballots to voters on that list. It also called for a new barcode system for mail-in ballot envelopes. A federal whistleblower said last month the proposed system could lead to the widespread disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
The states that filed the lawsuit against USPS argued that the restrictions violated the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes. They also argued that states did not have enough time to implement the requirements.
“If not stayed or preliminarily enjoined, the Rule will frustrate or outright prevent Plaintiff States from administering their mail voting programs in November and foreseeably disenfranchise voters who vote by mail,” the states said in their complaint. “Indeed, this seems to be what the President prefers.”
Voting rights groups such as the League of Women Voters also challenged the executive order.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the administration’s restrictions. The Trump administration appealed that decision. Then, in a 7-to-2 decision Monday, the Supreme Court ruled against the administration, blocking the restrictions from going into effect for November’s midterm elections.
However, the legal battle over the executive order continues, and the mail-in ballot restrictions could still be on the table for future elections, The Washington Post reported.
The executive order would have presented a particular challenge for North Carolina, which on Sept. 4 became the first state in the country to send mail-in ballots in this year’s election. In his statement on the Supreme Court’s decision, Jackson noted that voting is already underway in the state.
“It would have been impossible for the Postal Service to implement a whole new system in time for the election — especially since the new system doesn’t even exist yet,” Jackson said. “As Justice Kavanaugh put it, ‘state and local officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.’”
Any registered voter in North Carolina can vote absentee by mail; no special reason is required. To vote by mail, voters may submit a request online, by mail or in person by 5 p.m. on Oct. 20. Ballots must be received by Election Day, Nov 3. For more details, click here.
In recent years, the vast majority of North Carolina voters have either cast their ballot early or voted in-person on Election Day. Only 5% of registered voters in North Carolina voted by mail in the 2024 and 2022 elections, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The figure was as high as 18% in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
