Supreme Court Upholds Block on Mail Ballot Verification Rules

The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a lower-court order preventing the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing new mail-ballot verification requirements weeks before the November midterms. The unsigned order means states may continue using existing procedures that already account for roughly one-third of all ballots cast nationwide.

States including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin had begun mailing ballots under prior rules. The administration’s March 2026 executive order directed the Postal Service to require standardized envelopes with unique barcodes and to cross-check voter lists through a federal portal before delivery. Challengers argued the changes could not be implemented in time without risking disenfranchisement.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the result, writing that while the Postal Service likely possessed statutory authority, applying the rule this close to the election would be arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, contending that several plaintiffs lacked standing and that the underlying claims amounted to an ultra vires challenge unlikely to succeed given Congress’s broad grant of authority to the Postal Service.

The dispute returns to the lower courts. Eight states plus the District of Columbia already conduct all elections by mail; the remaining states use the method for varying portions of their electorate. No final ruling on the constitutional or statutory merits of the verification system has been issued.