Supreme Court leaves Arizona mail voting rules in place

What the court decided

The Supreme Court on Sept. 14 rejected President Donald Trump’s request to enforce a new Postal Service rule before the Nov. 3 general election. The justices left a preliminary injunction in place, keeping Arizona’s existing mail voting process unchanged through Election Day.

The court said state and local election officials lacked enough time to reasonably put the rule into effect before the elections. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The blocked rule would have given the Postal Service a role in determining which voters should receive mail ballots. It stemmed from Trump’s March 31 executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to create state lists of eligible voters based on citizenship and ordering the Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on approved mail-ballot lists.

Voting-rights organizations, including the League of Women Voters, sued to stop the rule. Arizona also challenged the order.

What it means for Arizona voters

Arizona counties can proceed under the state’s current mail voting system when ballots are mailed beginning Oct. 7. The decision is especially significant in Arizona because about 80% of voters cast ballots by mail.

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat and Arizona’s chief elections officer, said the decision removes barriers and allows Arizonans to choose the voting method that fits their schedules. He also defended Arizona’s longstanding mail voting system and rejected the argument that voter access and election security conflict.

Trump criticized the decision and repeated his claims that mail voting enables cheating. The ruling described here did not change Arizona’s existing procedures for the Nov. 3 election; it prevented the federal government’s proposed Postal Service rule from taking effect before that election.