A federal judge on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from implementing changes to mail-in voting that would create new design requirements and only send ballots to voters on a national list.
With less than two months until the midterms, mail-in voting has become a major topic of discussion. This decision comes amid a series of mail-in voting cases that have left voters and officials navigating conflicting rules ahead of the midterms. In March 2026, President Trump issued an executive order, entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections”, which sought to prevent any violations of Federal criminal law while also maintaining public confidence in election outcomes. Trump has repeatedly criticized mail-in voting and made claims of widespread election fraud, including lawsuits against states over voter fraud allegations and his claim that the 2020 election was rigged.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who sits on the federal trial bench in Washington D.C., has overseen several consolidated lawsuits challenging the president’s plan this year. In May, Judge Nichols dismissed a case by Democratic leaders in Congress and the Democratic National Committee after finding that their case was not ripe until the U.S. Postal Service finalized election changes on August 27th.
In the 24 page decision, Judge Nichols found that the Trump Administration’s mail-in ballot plan wasn’t authorized by Congress, saying that “[t]he key portions of the Rule exceed any conception of the outer bounds of these authorities.”
The ruling came as the Supreme Court deliberated on separate changes to mail-in voting that has been criticized by officials such as New York Attorney General Letitia James who stated that the new policy would lead to “confusion, unnecessary costs, and unacceptable risks for voters going into Election Day.”