Supreme Court hands preliminary win to Trump on mail-in ballots executive order

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday handed an initial win to the Trump administration in its effort to implement an executive order aimed at limiting who can receive mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.At issue are provisions that seek to create a federal list of eligible voters and order the U.S.Postal Service to deliver ballots only to eligible voters.The justices, divided 6-3, granted an emergency request filed by the government that blocks a Massachusetts-based judge’s ruling from June that prevented key aspects of the executive order from being put into effect this year in California and 22 other states that had challenged it.The court also granted a similar application filed by Alabama and 11 other states.U.S.

Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.Erin Scott / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileParts of the same executive order are currently blocked nationwide because of a later ruling issued by the same judge in a different case, but the Supreme Court decision is likely to apply to that ruling too.That means that the administration may, at least in the short term, be able to implement the executive order.President Donald Trump has frequently railed against the widespread use of mail-in ballots as part of his broader complaints, offered without evidence, that the election system is plagued with fraud.His efforts to encourage Congress to pass his SAVE America Act legislation that would impose new voting restrictions nationwide, including proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID, have so far failed.Election workers process mail-in ballots at San Francisco County's election operations facility at City Hall in San Francisco in June.

David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileThe Supreme Court decision is provisional, focusing only on the argument that U.S.District Judge Indira Talwani acted prematurely in preventing the provisions from being implemented in the 23 states before federal agencies had even drawn up...