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Trump can't order Postal Service to put limits on mail ballot delivery, judge rules (www.scrippsnews.com)
submitted 3 months ago by [M] to c/politics@sh.itjust.works
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A federal judge blocked the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out its plan for President Donald Trump’s mail ballot executive order, finding that the proposal violated a settlement in a 2020 lawsuit against the agency.

Trump had directed USPS to only transmit ballots for states that submit to the agency lists of their mail-in voters and that meet other requirements for their mail voting programs. Previously, a judge in Boston had halted the Postal Service from implementing the order for two-dozen states that challenged it in court. But the new ruling from US District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who sits in Washington DC, blocks the directives nationwide.

If courts let Trump’s order from March 2026 stand, it would give the federal government an unprecedented role in elections — and could put even more voter data in the hands of Trump officials searching for supposed election fraud.

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[–] 25 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I never really understood before why national elections were mostly a state by state matter but now I do.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    When the US Constitution was written, it was replacing the Articles of Confederation. The Articles provided for a very weak federal government, leaving most of the power with the States. Those States considered themselves very independent from one another, essentially their own countries.

    In order to get the Constitution ratified, with a stronger federal government, many powers still needed to be reserved to the States. Elections was a big one of those things, and so it is clearly defined in Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1 of the Constitution.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    LOL, thank you! I meant more that I didn't understand why that specific privilege (to administer national elections) was ever seen as important, since the president, for example, was being elected nationally. I also have the bias of a lot of history showing state's rights being used for, well, you already know. But now, having lived through the stolen election hysteria, I feel like I have a much more intuitive understanding of what State's Rights can also mean ._.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Sure, I didn't think I was answering exactly what you were asking. Still, the fact that elections being controlled by the States is more of a happy accident than something that was done to make elections stronger and safer.

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    • [–] 15 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    doesn't mean there won't be any mysterious 'delays' in the mail this fall.

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    • [–] 12 points 3 months ago

    If they can’t secure election fraud, they’re gonna declare martial law

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    [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    He can't order them to do this, but a nod and a wink, or a "won't someone rid me of this turbulent priest" moment, and, well, sometimes mail goes missing. It's terribly unfortunate and all that, a real shame it happened to only affect those ballots, but what can one do?

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    • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    DeJoy already said he would. Who's going to stop him? Or punish him after the fact? No one? K, bye.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I'm not sure about other places with mail-in voting, but here in Washington State, we have drop boxes as well. We also have tracking for the ballot that it was received which gives you alerts on your phone if you opt in. I would strong suggest using the drop boxes and getting alerts.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    De Joy was talking about mailing ballots to us so I’m not sure how helpful the drop boxes would be in that situation.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    I didn't catch that part. Biden fucked up not replacing him and garland.

    Edit: I forgot, the election department (or whatever you call it) sends you a ping when they sent the ballot so you can make sure you get it. Only if you opt in to alerts though.

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