Attorney General Dan Rayfield issued the following statement after the federal government asked the U.S. Supreme Court today to lift the order currently blocking the U.S. Postal Service’s mail ballot rule. A federal court is still weighing whether to grant a preliminary injunction that would keep the rule blocked while litigation continues.
“The federal government has no business playing referee over who gets a ballot in our elections. The job of the U.S. Postal Service is to deliver the mail. States run elections and this fight is about protecting the integrity of our vote.”
AG Rayfield and the coalition — 23 states, the District of Columbia, and the Governor of Pennsylvania — filed the lawsuit August 26. The lawsuit argues that USPS’s rule violates the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections, and if implemented, would upend successful, longstanding vote-by-mail procedures. The lawsuit also argues the rule is inconsistent with USPS’s governing statutes, ignores USPS’s procedural requirements, violates the Privacy Act, and is inconsistent with federal voting rights law.
