AG Brown secures court order temporarily blocking Postal Service’s unlawful mail voting rule

District court judge issues temporary restraining order to block rule from taking effect

A coalition of 25 states co-led by Attorney General Nick Brown has secured an order temporarily blocking a new rule by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that would have disrupted the states' vote-by-mail programs and put voters' rights at risk ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

"The Postal Service's attack on voting rights is blocked for now thanks to states like Washington stepping up in court," said Brown. "The fight will continue against the president's unconstitutional overreach on elections, and the states will win."

The temporary restraining order filed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts blocks USPS from requiring states to obtain the federal government's approval of ballot and return-envelope designs, register for a new USPS portal for tracking voter information, input information for each of their state's voters into the portal, and comply with other provisions.

The court found compliance with the rule before the November elections would be "practically impossible," noting states do not have the time to redesign and produce new ballots, update state-administered election systems, train state and local election officials, and upload a massive set of voter information to a new federal portal.

The court found these requirements created a significant risk of disenfranchisement, particularly because USPS's rule neither provided a deadline to the states for ballot and envelope designs nor guaranteed a turnaround time for USPS's approval of those designs. The court concluded that states face irreparable harm because many had already ordered their ballots, with some states required by state law to begin sending them to voters as early as next week.

On March 31, President Trump issued an executive order attempting to establish a national list of eligible voters and directing the U.S. Postal Service to transmit mail ballots only to voters on the list. On Aug. 26, USPS officially published a new rule implementing the president's demands that require states to register with USPS every voter who is eligible to vote by mail with USPS and tasking USPS with compiling the registered voters into state-specific lists.

That same day, Brown co-led a coalition of 25 states in filing a lawsuit to block the unlawful rule. The coalition now seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the rule from taking effect while the lawsuit proceeds and until a final court decision is made.

The coalition argues that USPS's rule upends successful, longstanding vote-by-mail procedures and violates federal statutes and the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections. In the 2024 general election, nearly 4 million voters in Washington cast their ballot that they received by mail. Washington's safe and secure vote-by-mail system was originally championed with bipartisan support and is popular with voters because of how it improves access to democracy.

Brown led this lawsuit with the attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, and Nevada. It was also joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Read the order.

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