US judge again blocks Postal Service's mail-in voting restrictions

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A federal judge ‌in Boston extended on Friday ​a ban ​stopping President Donald Trump's administration from implementing a new U.S. Postal Service rule that would tighten mail-in voting requirements ahead of the November congressional elections.

Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued the injunction at the behest of Democratic-led states and voting ‌rights groups, after the first state in the country sent out mail ballots for the elections on Friday.

Last ⁠week, Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, issued a 14-day temporary restraining order to prevent USPS' rule from being enforced while she considered whether to issue ‌a longer-term injunction.

The administration on Thursday had asked ‌the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and lift the restraining order so the rule could take effect. The court's 6-3 conservative majority last week lifted a prior order Talwani issued preventing USPS from imposing such restrictions.

USPS issued its rule to implement an executive ​order Trump signed in March after years of the Republican president calling to restrict voting by mail and pushing the false claim that his 2020 presidential election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread voter fraud.

Under the rule, states must supply the ⁠USPS with lists of mail ballot recipients, and all outbound and return ballot envelopes must bear unique barcodes.

The USPS, under the rule, may refuse to deliver ballots that do not ​comply with the new standards or are associated with voters who do not appear on the lists.

Voting rights advocates and several Democratic-led states convinced Talwani last week to temporarily block the rule, arguing it risked ​disenfranchising voters and was adopted in violation of the U.S. Constitution, which gives ‌states the authority to administer elections.

Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice countered that USPS had clear authority to implement what they called "modest" envelope design requirements. They said state election officials would retain full control over who ⁠is permitted to vote by mail in their states if the rule went into effect.

All 50 states allow for some form of mail-in voting. Of those, 29 states allow voters to ask to cast ballots by mail without providing a reason, and eight conduct their elections entirely by mail. North Carolina on ⁠Friday became the first state to mail ballots for the November elections.

The rule, if allowed to take effect, could force state election officials to try to ​overhaul their systems with just weeks left until the elections to comply with a system that critics say USPS is not ready to implement.

Numerous state election offices already have their envelopes and ballots printed. A USPS official said in a court filing on Thursday, Sept. 3 that an online portal that states would use ‌to upload their voter lists was not yet active. The official said it could be available for states that wish to use it at some point during the week of September 7.

A whistleblower statement ‌from an anonymous federal official released on Tuesday by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, alleged that USPS was rushing to implement a hastily ⁠created new system that risked disrupting the delivery of ‌mail ballots during the election.

The administration had asked ​a federal appeals court to set aside Talwani's initial restraining order. But the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had not acted on that request before the judge issued her latest decision.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston;Editing ‌by Rod Nickel)

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