US Postal Service mail-in ballot restrictions take effect amid court fights

New restrictions on how the United States Postal Service handles mail-in ballots are now in effect, after the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the measures earlier this week. The changes come as states prepare to send out millions of ballots ahead of elections scheduled for 3 November. The Postal Service said the injunctions that had blocked the rule no longer prevent implementation for the November vote or any earlier federal election.

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Under the new procedures, the agency will compile lists of eligible voters using input from states and will only deliver ballots to people on those lists. The rules were backed by President Donald Trump and were first set out after he signed an executive order in March directing his administration to create eligible-voter lists and require the Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots only to those included. The Postal Service had drafted regulations based on that directive, but implementation was put on hold while legal challenges moved through federal courts.

The latest legal fight was filed on Wednesday in federal court in Massachusetts by 24 states. Their attorneys-general say the measures are unconstitutional and would cause significant, imminent and irreparable harm by imposing new and burdensome mail voting requirements shortly before the November elections. The challenge adds to a wider series of court disputes over the rules, which have been opposed by Democratic officials in dozens of states and by voting rights advocacy groups.

The dispute matters because mail voting remains a major part of US election administration, especially in states that send ballots to large numbers of voters by post. Any change to how ballots are distributed can affect election logistics, state election offices and voter access in the final weeks before voting. It also places the Postal Service, an independent federal agency, at the centre of a politically charged fight over election rules.

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Voting by mail has long been a target of criticism from Trump, who has claimed it encourages fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and his own use of the method. He has argued that states have not done enough to verify who submits mail-in ballots and whether registered voters meet requirements such as US citizenship. The Supreme Court ruling, issued on Monday by the court's 6-3 conservative majority, gave the administration a legal victory in one of the cases challenging the policy.

What remains unclear is how quickly states will be able to provide the information needed for the Postal Service's new eligibility lists and whether further court rulings will alter the rules before ballots are mailed. The Massachusetts case and other pending challenges could still affect how the policy is applied in practice. For now, the Postal Service says the restrictions are in force as election officials move into the busiest phase of ballot preparation.

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