A federal judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration's plan to deny mail-in ballots to states that refuse to provide their voter rolls to federal officials. The ruling, issued by US District Judge Indira Talwani, declared that the executive order signed by Donald Trump on 31 March requiring the postal service to implement a barcode tracking system tied to immigration data was unconstitutional.
The decision comes amid a broader push by the president and his administration to reshape voting rules ahead of November's midterm elections. Trump is urging Congress to pass the Save America Act, which would introduce new voter ID requirements and restrict mail-in voting.
Voting rights groups, together with 23 states and the District of Columbia, sued to block the proposed rule, arguing that the US constitution does not grant the president authority to issue orders governing election administration. Democratic senators echoed this view during a hearing on Wednesday, questioning the legality of the policy before Postmaster General David Steiner.
Under the proposed changes, state election officials would have been required to submit a voter manifest with names, addresses and barcode identifiers to a new federal portal at least 30 days before an election. The postal service would then verify outgoing ballots against the database, rejecting any that did not match or lacked mandated barcodes.
Judge Talwani's injunction does not prevent the federal government from assisting states voluntarily with voter verification, but it blocks any steps to create a new federal programme to control state voter rolls or to investigate or prosecute state officials involved in federal election administration.
