Republican chief election officials say it is too late to implement Trump’s mail ballot order

Republican chief election officials from seven states said that it's too late for President Donald Trump's mail-in ballot order to be implemented before the midterm election, urging the Supreme Court to not allow the rule to go into effect in a brief submitted to the court on Wednesday.

Trump's order, signed in March, aimed to crack down on mail-in voting and assert federal control ahead of November's election. In August, the U.S. Postal Service released a final rule that would allow it to refuse delivering ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible voters or adhere to approved envelope styles.

Many election officials have already said Trump's orders are "not feasible" given that ballots have already been sent out in North Carolina and other early states, but the public disagreement from elected Republicans is notable given how much the president has focused on mail voting.

Wednesday's brief — which was also signed by current and former local election officials, many of whom are Republican — echoes the same concerns and urges the Supreme Court to ensure this election is conducted under the same rules used in 2024.

The chief election officials that signed on are Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and six secretaries of state: Kentucky's Michael Adams, North Dakota's Michael Howe, South Dakota's Monae Johnson, Georgia's Brad Raffensperger, New Hampshire's David Scanlan and Kansas' Scott Schwab.

"The work necessary to implement the rule in a manner that ensures workability and does not disrupt other ongoing processes that are crucial to a smooth election … cannot be responsibly accomplished in the time that remains in a manner that ensures both that the rule is implemented correctly and other crucial preparations do not fall by the wayside," the election officials wrote in the brief.

They added, "Attempting to implement the rule now will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays and confusion for both voters and election officials."

The officials' filing took no position on the merits of the rule, writing that it is not up to them to "opine on whether the Rule itself is good or bad" and saying that there is plenty of time to decide on the merits of the proposal "well before the 2028 election."

The officials also cited the Purcell principle, a long-debated holding in federal court that broadly says that federal judges should refrain from causing confusion with late-stage changes to voting rules.

Under the mail-in order, officials said they foresee more confusion for voters, which would erode confidence in the results of the election. Helen Purcell, a former local elections official in Arizona who was a party in a legal battle that made her the namesake of the principle, also signed on to the briefing.

The Trump administration's mail rule is currently being blocked by a preliminary injunction from a federal District Court judge in Boston. The Trump administration has now repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to set aside lower courts' rulings and let the rule go into effect for the November election.