The US Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump’s proposal to restrict mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections, frustrating the US president’s efforts to change the rules governing elections.
The super-conservative court’s ruling on Monday allowed states to continue sending out mail-in ballots, as they have done for years, and dealt a blow to President Trump’s plan to suspend voting ahead of the election and halt possible legal action in some states just before voting begins.
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President Trump has repeatedly questioned the security of voting by mail, citing debunked claims of widespread election fraud related to mail-in voting. This is despite the president himself voting by mail, including during the 2024 election.
Voting by mail has been in place for decades and has been shown to increase turnout, currently accounting for one-third of all votes cast in the United States.
Here’s what we know about the legal challenges to overturn them.
What is a mail-in vote?
Voting by mail is done by sending a ballot to a registered voter’s home and returning it before the deadline.
Eight states, including Democratic-leaning California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington, and the District of Columbia, allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail.
Some jurisdictions allow only small-scale elections to be conducted by mail.
The Brookings Institution says that while cases of forgery and re-voting do occur, they are rare, accounting for just four out of 10 million mail-in ballots.
What is President Trump saying about voting by mail?
President Trump falsely blamed mail-in voting fraud for his loss in the 2020 presidential election. He and his supporters also opposed changes made to expand mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
At the 2020 Republican National Convention, President Trump called changes to mail-in voting “the greatest fraud in political history.”
His efforts to advance the SAVE America Act, which calls for sweeping voting legislation, have stalled in the U.S. Senate. The bill passed the House of Representatives in February but faces opposition over concerns it would disenfranchise millions of voters.
How did President Trump target mail-in voting?
In March 2026, President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to manage mail-in voting by designing new envelopes with special barcodes that allow the federal government to ensure that votes come only from voters.
For midterm elections, this measure would force all states to adopt a uniform envelope style in the short term.
The order also required states to provide lists of voters to the U.S. Postal Service before elections. Several government departments will also have voter lists, including the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Postal Service was also given the power to reject mail-in ballots if they do not comply with new standards or are not associated with a registered voter in each state’s rolls.
What happened to your order?
Democrats and activists challenged the order in multiple courts, resulting in a series of rulings that changed hands between May and August.
In June, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued an injunction against the rule, saying it could violate the U.S. Constitution. Talwani also noted in the injunction that it is impossible to apply President Trump’s executive order when the midterm elections are already so close.
However, her ruling was overturned in late August by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court.
At the time, the Supreme Court had not decided whether Trump’s actions were constitutionally legal. Rather, they simply sided with the Trump administration on procedural grounds after the administration argued that the Democrats’ lawsuit was filed too soon.
What does the latest ruling mean?
In its latest final judgment, the Supreme Court declined to lift Justice Talwani’s injunction.
In a brief written order that did not go into detail, the court noted that the administration’s efforts to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections are likely to fail.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, voted against the administration in the majority, but indicated he might support the policy at a later stage. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, dissented.
Critics have long warned that restricting mail-in voting could disenfranchise some voters who typically rely on this method.
Additionally, some states, including Alabama, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, have begun sending out interim ballots, which could cause disruption to the delivery of mail-in ballots.
