The Trump administration just scored a significant legal victory on the mail-in ballot front, and if you live in California, you might want to sit down for this one. Actually, you are probably already sitting down because you mailed your ballot from the couch three weeks ago.
As Conservative Brief reported, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday temporarily allowed the U.S. Postal Service to proceed with a proposed election mail rule that would require states to hand over voter registration lists and serialized ballot barcodes before federal ballots get mailed out. The idea, according to supporters, is to strengthen election administration and security. The idea, according to opponents, is presumably something they will explain in further court filings.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli was pretty fired up about it. "This ruling is a win for election integrity and would have significant implications for states like California that refuse to submit their voter rolls to verify compliance with federal election laws," he said. California, for those keeping score, is the state where nearly all registered voters receive mail ballots, and where counting said ballots takes roughly the same amount of time as building a house.
To be fair to California, Los Angeles County alone has more than 10 million residents, which is more people than live in many entire states. Counting all those ballots is a logistical monster. California election officials have defended their system as secure and have disputed President Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud, maintaining that extensive safeguards are already in place.
Now here is where it gets interesting. This ruling does not actually resolve the underlying lawsuit, which is titled National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. United States Postal Service and Louis DeJoy. A three-judge panel simply concluded the Postal Service met the legal standard for a stay pending appeal, meaning the rule can move forward while the legal fight continues.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court muddied the waters a bit in June with a 5 to 4 decision in Watson v. Republican National Committee, ruling that federal law does not bar states from counting mail-in ballots received days after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by the deadline. That case involved Mississippi's law allowing absentee ballots to trickle in up to five business days after Election Day. The Fifth Circuit had sided with the Republican National Committee, but the high court reversed that.
So to summarize the current state of affairs: one court says the Postal Service can require states to verify voter rolls before sending ballots, another court says states can keep counting ballots that show up fashionably late, and Trump is still pushing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act. If you are confused, congratulations, you are paying attention.
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