As President Donald Trump’s effort to restrict mail-in voting has bounced between the courts this week, the result has been whiplash among voters and officials. State and local election officials have been watching closely as provisions that govern mail ballots become unlawful and then lawful and then unlawful again in a matter of days. Now, they are trying to figure out how to comply with a law that has become a bit of a moving target.
For about a day, the mail-in ballot restrictions remained in effect after the Supreme Court cleared a key hurdle to Trump’s mail ballot executive order on Monday. Then on Wednesday, a federal judge who had issued a similar injunction was pressured to remove a separate block on the order.
Those moves prompted two new legal challenges Wednesday from a coalition of Democratic states and voting rights groups, respectively. The new lawsuits specifically target the new United States Postal Service rule, issued last Friday, that governs who may receive mail ballots. Late Thursday night, a federal judge again granted their request and again blocked a key provision of Trump’s plan until at least Sept. 10.
With that court ruling, it’s back to business as usual — but even that could change again as soon as the clock continues to tick on state deadlines. North Carolina sends its first wave of absentee ballots Sept. 4. Officials there are in crunch mode, working to meet that deadline as they do every election.
“We’ve had no other guidance other than to move forward with beginning to mail out absentees on September 4,” Wake County Director of Elections Olivia McCall told MS NOW.
McCall said her office has not received any specific guidance from the State Board of Elections regarding changes to mail-ballot procedures in the event the court order is lifted and the state must comply with the new USPS rule. She does not even know how the systems required by the rule, including an online portal with a list of eligible voters, would work.
“I don’t know what they’ve already talked about, put in place, tested out,” McCall said. “That would be specific guidance that would have to come down from the State Board of Election as to what all 100 counties uniformly would need to do to comply with that, and we haven’t gotten that direction.”
Wake County received an update Wednesday from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
That update read in part: “At this time, with so much left unresolved, we cannot comment on hypotheticals about what may or may not happen with the USPS and executive order in the courts, as the situation is uncertain. We are discussing and preparing internally for any changes that might be necessary in the coming days or weeks.”
The State Board of Elections told the counties to proceed with sending the ballots next week as planned, but added a caveat: “If it becomes necessary, we will do our best to comply with any court decisions, as we always do.”
On Friday, a spokesperson for the State Board of Elections told MS NOW that they have researched the requirements of the USPS rule and believe they can comply if required to do so, adding that North Carolina’s ballot envelopes already include the special barcodes the USPS rule requires.
McCall said Wake County is prepared to pivot, even if she does not yet know what that will entail. “We’re going to follow the law,” she said. “Whatever’s in place.”
Even as state election officials work to determine how to comply with the law — and to stay abreast of what the law is at any particular moment — the bigger challenge may be how officials communicate that to the public and dispel any confusion voters might have.
“I think the main question is, ‘Hey, I saw this in the news. What does this mean for my absentee request?’” McCall said.
The post The Postal Service’s mail-in ballot rule remains a moving target as states work to comply appeared first on MS NOW.
