US judge agrees with NAACP on proposed voting restrictions | Election News

President Donald Trump wants to limit mail-in voting and has ordered his administration to limit its use.

A US federal judge has struck down a ban on mail-in voting promoted by President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday in Washington, DC, District Judge Emmet Sullivan sided with the NAACP, a civil rights organization, in a lawsuit against the US Postal Service (USPS).

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Sullivan found that the restrictions would violate the 2021 resolution that calls for a runoff on the ballot.

So he accepted the NAACP’s request to enforce the settlement, dealing yet another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to change the US voting landscape.

“The NAACP has made it clear — and the Postal Service has not disputed — that the Requested Rule is already affected by current events,” Sullivan wrote in his ruling.

The lawsuit relates to a rule the Postal Service introduced in May that would require states to provide lists of absentee and registered voters. Votes that do not match the list will be returned.

The law will also require the creation of new ballot envelopes, administrative logos and barcodes. Failure to comply could result in the Postal Service refusing to issue ballots.

The NAACP said the proposal would conflict with the 2021 legislative agreement that forces Postal Service officials to take “extraordinary measures” to ensure that ballots are delivered on time.

The settlement “states that the Postal Service has agreed to ‘prioritize the monitoring and timely delivery of designated mail,'” Sullivan wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.

The decision comes less than five months before the November 3 midterm elections, which will decide whether Trump’s Republican Party will retain control of both houses of Congress.

Trump has expressed concern that he could be impeached for a third term if Democrats reshuffle the legislature.

He has also spread false theories that US elections are prone to “vote rigging”, pointing to popular election tools such as mail-in ballots and electronic voting machines.

Elections are administered by state and local election officials, as established by the US Constitution. But the Postal Service’s order came as a result of efforts under the Trump administration to impose new limits on voting.

In March, Mr. Trump issued an executive order entitled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”. In it, he instructed the Department of Justice to take action against states that “fail to comply” with certain principles of mail ballots.

He also criticized states that allowed absentee ballots or mail-in ballots after Election Day for breaking the law.

But in another strike for Mr. Trump, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a state law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted even if they are received after Election Day, as long as they were printed on or before that day. The lower courts have also blocked the president’s order.

Civil rights activists applauded the court’s ruling Wednesday and warned against Trump’s proposed crackdown on mail-in voting.

“The court today correctly found that the USPS’s proposal to create roadblocks to vote in elections is inconsistent with its commitment to deliver election mail on time,” said Allison Zieve, director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP.

“The USPS system was senseless, illegal, and dangerous to the millions of voters who rely on mail-in ballots to participate in our democracy.”

Sam Spital, associate director of the Legal Defense Fund, which has also criticized the NAACP, called the Postal Service’s plan “a blatant attempt” to disenfranchise voters who rely on mail-in ballots.

“Today’s decision recognizes that the USPS cannot ignore its legal responsibility to deliver ballots on time,” Spital said.