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The midterms are two months away, and President Donald Trump has already accomplished a long-sought-after goal: sowing chaos in mail voting. His executive order that taps the U.S. Postal Service and Homeland Security to nationalize U.S. elections elicited a contentious legal battle that culminated in the Supreme Court intervening last week. The justices ruled that—for now—the EO could move forward, but they did not consider the merits of the case, leaving the door wide open for updated lawsuits. And, like clockwork, within days updated litigation was filed, and a Massachusetts judge again issued a 14-day restraining order preventing the order from taking effect. This dizzying back-and-forth puts states in a precarious position: upend their mail-ballot process to comply with the new federal guidance or simply hold off to prevent unnecessary changes and confusion?

States and voting rights groups are still engaged in an active legal battle to prevent Trump’s EO from taking effect; for now they have secured two weeks of relief, after which there’s going to be more court action. It is anyone’s guess how this will play out, though U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who issued the injunctions, said it’s “a likely unconstitutional regulation for which compliance is practically impossible as to the 2026 midterm elections, now little more than two months away.”

Since the inception of the United States of America, states have controlled their elections. The Constitution plainly states that “the times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof,” and this was further codified by Congress in 1993 with the National Voter Registration Act. The Trump administration is well aware of this, but given the president’s well-documented grievances with mail voting, it is actively choosing to ignore the Constitution and undermine U.S. elections by sowing doubt and confusion, something the president has already achieved. According to a whistleblower report this week, USPS is continuing to develop a chaotic new scheme for deciding whether to send out mail ballots that defaults toward refusing to send large batches of ballots based on finding a single unconfirmed error. This scheme may not yet be in effect, but it leaves many states in a sort of limbo, including some that are meant to send out ballots as soon as this week.

Through DHS and USPS, Trump’s executive order is attempting to implement three new rules for mail voting: New ballot envelopes that include an intelligent mail barcode and an “Official Election Mail” logo are required in order for USPS to process ballots; states can notify USPS of their intent to use these new mail ballots no fewer than 90 days before an election; and, the most contentious part of the order, state election officials must give USPS a list of every resident in their state who will be sent a mail ballot. It’s not explicitly stated, but the assumption here is that states’ voter lists must match a list of........

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