Washington state officials are taking a victory lap — at least for now — in an ongoing legal fight against President Trump’s attempts to overhaul mail-in voting.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown on Friday applauded a fresh ruling from a federal judge in Massachusetts who temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from changing the rules for voting by mail. The injunction, issued Thursday, pauses the Postal Service’s new rules for two weeks, after half the states in the country sued in federal court over the changes.
“The Postal Service's attack on voting rights is blocked for now, thanks to states like Washington stepping up in court,” Brown said in a statement. He said his office would continue to work with other states to fight the new rules, which he called a “constitutional overreach.”
Changes from the Postal Service, in response to a presidential order to crack down on allegations of voter fraud, would require states to submit voter rolls to the federal government before mailing out ballots. State election officials have expressed concern that the matter, which has been tied up in courts for weeks, could affect voting in the November elections. The matter has taken on greater urgency as states prepare to send ballots to overseas voters and military members.
A coalition of 25 states, including Washington, sued the Postal Service on Wednesday and requested a block on its new rules until the Supreme Court has considered their constitutionality. The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in. On Monday, justices issued a procedural ruling in the matter, but did not determine whether Trump’s attempts to change voting by mail were legal.
The states argued in their lawsuit Wednesday that complying with the new rules before the November election would be nearly impossible and could cause irreparable harm.
Washington state has one of the highest rates of voting by mail-in ballot. Steve Hobbs, Washington’s secretary of state, said that changing the mail-in rules so close to the November election would be chaotic. He and other election officials have encouraged the use of ballot drop boxes, instead of the U.S. mail.
“Every eligible voter has the right to cast a ballot, including by mail,” Hobbs said in a statement Friday. “These new federal requirements are an unnecessary distraction from the work election officials need to be doing right now: administering a secure and accessible election.”
Washington state will begin mailing ballots to citizens living overseas on Sept. 19.
