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

The Trump administration wants to exert greater control over mail-in ballots ahead of the midterms despite the primary role states play in overseeing elections.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court handed an initial win to the Trump administration Monday 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 those people.

The justices, divided 6-3 along ideological lines with conservatives in the majority, lifted an injunction a Massachusetts-based judge imposed in June that prevented key aspects of the executive order from going 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.

The White House praised the court’s ruling, calling the executive order’s provisions “commonsense measures.”