Federal judge blocks enforcement of mail-in voting executive order in WA state
A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at restricting mail-in voting, formally pausing the order’s implementation in Washington state.
Thursday’s ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by 23 attorneys general, including Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown.
The executive order, issued in late March, asked the U.S. Postal Service to start rulemaking on vote-by-mail services. A USPS proposal came June 2, which would require states to submit a list of voters receiving mail-in or absentee ballots to USPS. Envelopes would undergo strict barcode requirements.
This rule would not apply to local elections, or to primaries and overseas military voter ballots. It would change how special, general, and run-off federal elections are overseen.
Thursday’s decision blocked the President from enforcing the executive order and said USPS cannot refuse to transmit ballots within the lawsuit’s plaintiff states — including Washington. Postmaster General David Steiner said on Wednesday that the USPS would follow any court orders, and that under the proposed rule, the postal service would not deliver ballots in any state that refused to turn over voter rolls to the Trump administration, Reuters reported.
While the executive order has been blocked, it’s likely that the Trump administration will appeal, Reuters reported.
“The president’s executive order lawfully protects our elections, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in its implementation,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement, Reuters reported.
The deadline for public comments on the proposed USPS rule is July 2. The federal government has not publicly said what action they will pursue next.
Supporters argue the proposal is needed to uphold federal election security. Trump has regularly said, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud led to his 2020 presidential election defeat.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has said the proposal represents an intrusion on state authority over elections. In a press release issued Friday, Hobbs shared his comments to the USPS that urge the postal service to withdraw the proposed rule.
“The executive order on which this proposed rule is based and the proposed rule itself are unconstitutional intrusions on state authority over elections and also violate the constitutional separation of powers,” Hobbs wrote. “A court recently agreed that the executive order’s directions to USPS were unlawful, and the USPS has no constitutional authority to interfere with state regulation of the time, place, and manner of holding elections. The court specifically forbid the USPS from proposing or implementing rules outlined in the executive order for the November 3, 2026 election and all earlier elections.”
Hobbs argued that there isn’t enough time to put the rule in place before the election this year, and that it “would be a financial burden on an electoral system that currently functions well despite limited resources.”
He said that the proposed rule would have “an equal effect on state and local ballots that appear on our consolidated election ballots.”
Putting the rule in place this year would mean that “counties may not be able to use the ballot envelopes they have already purchased,” he wrote.
This story was originally published June 27, 2026 at 5:15 AM with the headline "Federal judge blocks enforcement of mail-in voting executive order in WA state."