Appeals court blocks Trump order restricting mail voting in 23 states

A federal appeals court kept President Donald Trump from enforcing key parts of his mail-voting order in 23 states and Washington, D.C., leaving current election procedures in place for now. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that stops the administration from creating a federal voter list and then limiting mail ballots to people on that list.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston blocked those parts of the order on June 25, and the appeals court let that ruling stand. That means election officials in the affected jurisdictions do not have to switch to a new federal list before issuing mail ballots, a change that would have touched one of the most common ways voters cast ballots outside Election Day.

The injunction covers 23 mainly Democratic-led states plus Washington, D.C., according to NPR. CBS and AP said the ruling blocked the administration’s effort to move forward with the mail-in voting restrictions in those states ahead of the November midterm elections. Reuters reported the appellate decision on July 25, and the government has said it may take the case to the Supreme Court.

The order at the center of the case sought to create a federal voter list and tie access to mail ballots to that list, a direct intrusion into how states manage voter registration and absentee voting. Voting-rights groups, including the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice, argued that the order was unconstitutional and would disenfranchise eligible voters. States that sued said the federal government was overreaching into an area traditionally run by state election officials.

The fight is part of a broader set of Trump-era voting disputes that also includes proof-of-citizenship requirements and demands for voter data. The Brennan Center said that more than a year after the executive order was issued, many provisions remained blocked and others were still being challenged in federal court. For now, the decision leaves mail voting rules unchanged in the states covered by the injunction as the legal battle moves toward the next round of federal elections.