US Postal Service Finalizes Rule Regarding Mail-In Ballots

Under the policy, participating states would be required to enroll voters using mail ballots on a new “Mail-In and Absentee Participation List.”

Election officials would also be required to place a unique tracking barcode on each outgoing ballot and its corresponding return ballot, creating a system designed to track election mail as it moves through the postal network.

The rule, however, had been blocked ahead of the 2026 midterm elections because of a federal court injunction blocking its implementation.

But that changed on Monday.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a significant legal victory, allowing enforcement of President Trump’s executive order imposing new requirements on mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections.

The justices lifted a lower-court injunction that had prevented the administration from implementing the challenged provisions in 23 states that sued to block the order.

The states had argued that the administration exceeded its authority by attempting to impose new federal requirements on election procedures traditionally administered by state governments.