DC’s Ballot Fight Is Back at the Supreme Court
Remember our Aug. 25 story about the fight over Trump’s mail voting order? On Aug. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unsigned, 6-3 ruling that let the administration move forward on parts of that order, while leaving the fight over the Postal Service’s own piece of it to play out separately. A federal judge in Boston blocked that Postal Service piece on Aug. 27, then issued a full preliminary injunction on Sept. 4 keeping it blocked for this November’s election while Pennsylvania and other states’ lawsuit plays out, though the fight over that injunction is not over either. The Trump administration has now gone back to the Supreme Court twice trying to get it lifted, most recently this past Sunday. The states challenging it, Pennsylvania included, have to file their response by tomorrow, Wednesday, at 4 p.m. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office says nothing has changed for how Pennsylvania residents vote by mail, and that remains true today. Pennsylvania is accepting applications now for the Nov. 3 election, due by 5 p.m. Oct. 27, with completed ballots due back to county election offices (a postmark doesn’t count) by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and with Pennsylvania’s own 8th District rated one of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country, the stakes are real.
One clarification: Monroe County voters can already apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot for the Nov. 3 election, but the county hasn’t said when it’ll actually start mailing them. Pennsylvania counties only have to begin processing applications by Sept. 14. That’s not a mailing date. North Carolina has already sent its first ballots, but Monroe County’s aren’t out yet, and once they are, whatever the Supreme Court decides about the Postal Service is going to matter immediately.
