A Washington federal judge ruled that the Postal Service’s proposed ballot delivery rules violated a 2021 settlement requiring expedited handling of election mail.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the U.S. Postal Service from imposing proposed restrictions on mail-in ballot delivery, ruling that the plan violated a prior legal settlement requiring special handling of election mail.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington sided with the NAACP, which challenged the Postal Service proposal after officials sought to require states to submit voter lists and adopt new ballot procedures before the agency would deliver mail-in ballots.
Under the May proposal, states that did not comply with the new requirements could have had their ballots refused by the Postal Service.
Sullivan, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Bill Clinton, found that the rule conflicted with a 2021 settlement between the Postal Service and the civil rights group. That agreement required postal officials to take “extraordinary measures” to ensure timely delivery of ballot mail.
The ruling marks another legal setback for President Donald Trump’s effort to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. It is the second court defeat on the issue in two weeks as Republicans seek to maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
The NAACP argued that the Postal Service could not impose new delivery conditions that undermined the earlier settlement. Sullivan agreed, blocking the proposed restrictions before they could take effect.
The decision preserves the expedited ballot-handling requirements from the 2021 agreement and prevents the Postal Service from refusing mail-in ballots based on whether states comply with the proposed new procedures.
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