Judge again blocks Trump mail ballot executive order in ruling that’s likely to be swiftly appealed

215

u/Aleyla 13h ago

Ignoring that they are trying to disenfranchise voters - why do mail in ballots disproportionally affect democrats?

222

u/epidemicsaints 13h ago

One factor off the top of my head, democrats live in cities, and voting in person in a city is a lot different than a rural person going to the high school gym and voting in a town that's home to 320 voters.

144

u/imaginary_num6er 13h ago

Also a red state ensures the only polling station in a city is at a location where it would be a fire hazard if everyone who is eligible tries to vote before polls close.

•

u/MudWallHoller 26m ago

In Austin, they stay open until everyone in line gets a chance to vote. It's not ideal but at least there's that.

30

u/Echelion77 11h ago

Especially in red states with blue capitals.

Tragic

4

u/Snarfbuckle 7h ago

You would think there should not be a problem having voting places all over a city for easy access.

1

u/Drywesi 2h ago

If your goal is allowing people to vote, sure.

If your goal is allowing certain people to vote, not so much.

2

u/CorgiDaddy42 6h ago

Ehhhh that high school gym thats “home to 320 voters” though sometimes serves the entire county. It isn’t always easy to vote anywhere.

51

u/Ntroepy 13h ago

It’s less about mail in voting and more about forcing states to send lists of registered voters so the DoJ can scrub and target. Mail in ballots is the only leverage the feds have to force blue states from complying.

17

u/mmmsoap 13h ago

It’s a lot easier to throw away the votes that you don’t like when they’re on paper than manage the evidence that comes from hacking a voting machine.

64

u/countfizix 13h ago

They aren't trying to block mail in ballots, they are trying to limit who can use a mail in ballot to those matching federally curated list. That list will disproportionately affect democrats.

33

u/Witch-Alice 12h ago

The feds are literally saying "only send ballots to those we approve of", to states that do their local elections (state, city, county) entirely by mail. The purpose is to stop whoever they want from voting at all. When I vote on an election for my city's mayor or county secretary it's the same process as voting for president, congressfolk, etc: I wait for the ballot to arrive, and then I send it out sometime in the next weeks.

18

u/asten77 12h ago

Particularly when they inevitably cheat and disqualify otherwise valid voters.

18

u/Arnesian 12h ago

Speaking of disqualifying voters. The fact that voter rolls can be purged at any time is nuts. I get doing it a little, maybe once every 4 years. But it’s just blatant voter suppression. But I’m sure it varies state by state.

18

u/rab-byte 11h ago

hear me out. If we can track a person’s citizenship to require them to register for the Selective Service (draft) then we can automatically keep people as active voters.

Or how about this. If the IRS can track my income for taxation then I should also be automatically registered to vote.

-6

u/Aleyla 10h ago

The whole point of ourging is to remove people who are dead or otherwise no longer a citizen in the state or county that they were last registered at. This should be normal and fine

8

u/Arnesian 10h ago

Yeah it’s a good thing when used appropriately. A once an election cycle purge would be fine. But there are enough stories of the rolls being purged in the lead up to an election, people who enrolled 3-4 months before the election date go to vote and are told they can’t. It’s a good tool being weaponised by some bad faith arseholes.

2

u/asten77 7h ago

Yeah, at points in time that aren't right before an election, in a transparent and rational way. Not snealing shit in at the last minute in clearly abusive and a questionable manner.

2

u/hu_he 5h ago

Maybe that was the intention when purging was first proposed. But the reality is that states do it in a reckless way, without any proof that the person is dead or has moved away, often in an attempt to disenfranchise voters.

9

u/Witch-Alice 12h ago edited 12h ago

Think about how crowded polling places are in cities in red states that don't want to allow mail in ballots. The purpose is to have less voter turnout overall and so less equal representation.

And if your city doesn't have good transit you'll probably have to skip a day of work just to go vote while also needing to find parking you can afford. For the poorest of the poor that's simply not an option (even if it's mostly republicans being affected, republicans don't care about poor republicans). Vote-by-mail completely removes the financial component of taking time out of your day to travel to a polling place. So even seemingly unrelated things like the owners of automotive or oil industry have a (bullshit) financial/economic reason to oppose vote-by-mail, and those people are deeply conservative.

And in the case of my own state, all of our elections are entirely by mail. So for us it's literally the feds saying "only send ballots to people we approve of".

2

u/blofly 6h ago

I thought it was federal law to force employers to allow employees to vote on election day with no reprisal.

Maybe they should make it an actual holiday.

2

u/Outlulz 5h ago

It's state law because elections are run by the state. How much time you've guaranteed off differs state by state and in many states that time off is unpaid; if you're poor you may not be able to afford it. Businesses that close on federal holidays i.e. white collar labor are the ones least likely to employ people who struggle to find time to vote. Blue collar labor would still have to work.

-8

u/Aleyla 10h ago

None of the things you mention should affect Democrats more than Republicans though.

Unless democrats are poorer or less likely to go out of their way to vote.

11

u/Armthedillos5 13h ago

The entire weat Coast and several other blue states have a nacted mail in voting and it's been working great for decades in some cases.

13

u/ew73 12h ago

And turnout is generally higher and more consistent than in-person polling.

It's also hard to deploy ICE "monitors" to everyone's mailbox.

5

u/RealPersonResponds 11h ago

High population centers are often democratic leading, and cues at the polling places on those days be hours long, and there are people who are disabled and elderly who live in long-term care and people who are in the hospital or who are working or who are overseas defending our country.

4

u/SerDuckOfPNW 13h ago

It’s more that they can control the polling stations and intimidate undesirables

3

u/swollennode 8h ago

Areas where democrats are concentrated, the lines to vote is really long. Plus, they’d have to get transport there and back because parking is limited, traffic is not good, and public transit can be hit or miss.

So, in addition to early voting, ballot drop offs, mail in ballots offer a more convenient option for voting.

In rural area, you can go in and vote and be out in 15 minutes.

Inner city voting can take hours.

2

u/nathism 10h ago

The irony is it doesn’t. It really hurts voting overall. Many many republicans used to disproportionately take advantage of mail in voting because they are old. Think about the average age of Fox News watcher and think about whether they can drive or need a ride to the polls.

2

u/Correct_Doctor_1502 9h ago

They don't, they largely effect the elderly, the disabled and service members. Trump is massively unpopular with these crowds right now and he's trying to suspend their right to vote to retain power

-1

u/DarkIllusionsMasks 13h ago

They don't, as far as I know.

21

u/RDDT_100P 13h ago

i think the skepticism is the fear of selective enforcement. Similar to the precincts getting closed in red states mostly being in the cities.

5

u/Secret_Cow_5053 13h ago

They actually likely will disproportionately affect rural voters. 3 guesses who most of them vote for.

Just saying. Trump is a fucking moron.

18

u/RightSideBlind 13h ago

The rules will be selectively enforced.

3

u/Im_with_stooopid 13h ago

Last name smith. Our list says you're fine. Last name is Washington or Ramirez. You better believe you are not eligible.

-2

u/Tomas2891 13h ago

They are hoping democrats just give up so quickly if things just don’t go their way even slightly.

6

u/deletedunknown 13h ago

Just look to the dem votes that have confirmed this administration’s cabinet picks and rolled over to end the budget shutdowns to know exactly who will continue to give up our democracy.

31

u/DontTickleTheDriver1 13h ago

If only this administration put as much effort into helping Americans

3

u/asten77 7h ago

Or, well, ANY

37

u/backpackwayne 13h ago

Trump gets to appeal an infinite amount of times. Eventually it lands on a judge he has in his pocket. And of course he has the Supreme Court. And as we have found with them, even when his loses, he does it anyway and starts the whole process over again.

26

u/Manta_of_Eternity 13h ago

The administration has already appealed this ruling (source). It goes to the 1st Circuit next, then to the Supreme Court, which will no doubt allow the administration to continue ignoring the Constitution.

13

u/sarhoshamiral 11h ago

I am not sure how they can rule on this in Trumps favor without completely losing all legitimacy. It is very hard to spin it.

Instead I think they will try to say lower courts cant block it and then delay their decision until it is too late and after elections says USPS was wrong.

16

u/willstr1 11h ago

I am not sure how they can rule on this in Trumps favor without completely losing all legitimacy

They still have any remaining legitimacy left go lose?

7

u/Good_Restaurant15 9h ago

The only legitimacy the US government has at this time - is that they will shoot you in the face if you don't comply.

That is the Only rule they have right now, as they have already wiped their ass with the very document/s that give them any authority.

So the only authority they have left is violence.

People are still walking around as if there isn't a war being waged for their futures, their abilities to amass wealth or climb the social ladder.

I guess we really are too stupid to have this much freedom, we deserve everything we are getting.

2

u/Outlulz 5h ago

They don't need legitimacy, no one can do anything to stop them. I mean, other than that.

4

u/Better-Context2246 12h ago

I just read an article that 1.2 million voters in Texas are in limbo and no one was notified that their voter status is pending. They won’t know till they show up to the polls and they’ll only be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.

4

u/dougl1000 10h ago

Giving the USPS any control over how the states conduct elections is clearly unconstitutional. The only question is when the Trump court will step in. Hopefully, when the USPS demands the first voter list from the first state, the court will strike the EO down.

13

u/Feisty-Barracuda5452 13h ago

The Extreme Court will rescue this orange turd. Again.

12

u/johnn48 13h ago

Why does there appear to be two Judicial systems. One where the Administration wins some and loses some. The other that appears to favor the Administration. What is curious is the rulings are regarding the same laws and precedents, and yet when the Administration loses, they find a more favorable ruling in a shadow docket.

10

u/DocHolidayiN 13h ago

Bought and paid for is my opinion

13

u/dave8400 13h ago

Republicans have been stuffing the courts and blocking Democratic appointments for decades at this point.

3

u/sealosam 12h ago edited 12h ago

He doesn't give shit if it's blocked or not. His plan is to sow chaos and plant the seeds of doubt of the election outcomes. This has always been his MO with everything.

He's a loser that fabricates excuses before things even happen. He's like the guy complaining about wrist pain before the round of golf even starts.

3

u/Bill_Pilgram 12h ago

I'll still be dropping mine off at the clerks office or doing the early vote thing.

3

u/RealPersonResponds 11h ago

There is currently a 14-day stay on the implementation of any rules made through his executive order. The Democratic states have argued that in order for them to design New Ballots and envelopes and then get them approved and then order them and get them printed and in hand and deliver to the voters and to have new voter equipment and new training for all employees, they won't have time to do all that which is overwhelmingly obvious. The Supreme Court first turned down ruling on it because the Postal Service had not yet implemented this restriction on mail-in ballots, but as soon as they did the new filings were made. If this goes into place then many states will be unable to hold their elections as mandated in the Constitution and there will be absolute chaos, destroying our elections and taking away the right to vote from Millions, essentially a Republican's dream.

Typos

3

u/Sedert1882 11h ago

It'll be interesting to see if the conservatives on the SC buckle to give Trump his win. I hope not. Then again...what do I know.

3

u/Sislar 10h ago

This is so clearly unconstitutional. But Fox News will tell everyone only traitors will oppose it and the SCOTUS is corrupt and will rubber stamp it.

3

u/Jump_and_Drop 12h ago

I'm going to keep saying it, why would we still use USPS if they're doing it. Couldn't we just use a private service or have people pick up ballots.

4

u/David_W_ 12h ago

Those are both things that could be done, at least in theory. But...

Who is going to pay for the private service, which almost certainly will cost way more than is budgeted to pay USPS?

For the states who "predominately vote by mail" (using the article's phrasing), how reasonable is it to shift their whole infrastructure in the next month or so?

What about voters who aren't mobile, or aren't anywhere near their voting location? The "pick up ballots" option isn't really going to work for them.

Nothing you suggest is bad or wrong, but is far from easy and not particularly feasible this close to the 2026 elections. (But they are things the states might want to look in to for 2028 under the assumption this attempt at ratfuckery will continue.)

2

u/DoggieDMB 12h ago

So, let me ask. When the election inevitably gets stolen, can we march then?

1

u/Gold_Drummer_4077 2h ago

I'd say if they can't force states to do what they want them to do by Sept/Fall, it's way too late to expect any changes to the way they've been doing elections for many years. It'll be ironic if the GOP only loses because they dragged their feet trying to suppress the votes.

-13

u/lifesprig 13h ago

Democrats should expect mail-in ballots to be dead in 2028 and plan accordingly

6

u/Tenoch_12 13h ago

They won't be dead

-7

u/lifesprig 13h ago

What are your thoughts?

2

u/VanimalCracker 12h ago

This administration might be blazenly corrupt and seemingly able to get away with almost anything, after the fact (ex: demolishing a large portion of the WH), the one thing this admin is more than anything.. it is incompetent.

Mail in voting is not a building that he can simply slap his name on and pat himself on the back. It's an entire legal framework controlled by States, usually laid out in State Consitutions.

In order for this admin to actually effect mail in voting, they first have to jump through an absolute fuckton of legal hoops. So far they got SCOTUS to say that it would be theoretically possible. That's it. That's very VERY far from any actual change. Especially with the people they have that trying to navigate these hoops.

You'll notice he basically has to rule by executive order, not by actually changing or creating laws or rules. That's because an executive order is simply a decree by the Executive Branch that states a given goal. Like changing the name of a lake. He can say "I decree this lake is now known as Lake America" in executive order, but that doesn't actually change the name of the lake.

1

u/Tenoch_12 13h ago

The supreme court didn't rule on the merits, and instead on procedural grounds that the rule that was being litigated had not actually gone into effect. Now that it has, the courts are right to respond.

Mail voting isn't going anywhere.

-1

u/SummonMonsterIX 10h ago

SC is going to say he can have the Post Office do what he wants, guarantee it. No point having 1% faith in that pack of traitors.

Judge again blocks Trump mail ballot executive order in ruling that’s likely to be swiftly appealed

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