According to the text posted online Friday, the USPS is ready to implement the new restrictions on mail-in voting if the court injunctions are lifted.
“If the government obtains timely relief from the injunctions, implementation immediately thereafter will provide election officials as much time as possible before the next election to comply with the rule’s preparation standards for Federal Ballot Mail envelopes, and to prepare to submit data to the Federal Ballot Mail Portal (‘Portal’), before the mail-in and absentee ballots subject to this rule are mailed (which generally occurs in September or thereafter, as determined by state law),” the rule reads. “The Portal will become active (along with the verification process that relies on Portal data) at the time of the publication of the system of records (‘SOR’) governing the Portal.”
Nearly one in three Americans voted by mail in 2024, but Trump, who wants to restrict the number of voters by limiting ballots cast by mail, signed an executive order in March that prohibits the USPS from delivering ballots to any voters not on a federal list of citizens deemed eligible to vote in each state by the Department of Homeland Security.
Have lived in WA state. It’s super nice and convenient. They send a pamphlet with all the candidates names and BLUFs a few weeks ahead of time, and then a ballot shows up in my mailbox. I do more research on the candidates, fill it out and either drop it off at one of the many drop boxes around town, or put it back in the mail. Honestly it keeps me more involved in local elections, because I can’t really say I’d be remembering/prioritizing going to vote in person for the local races not in main election season.