All articles tagged with #voting by mail
President Trump's aggressive stance against vote-by-mail and a series of conflicting court rulings have left voters confused while local election officials scramble to adapt contingency plans. Officials are reassuring ballots are safe but urging in‑person voting or use of drop boxes and cautioning against relying on the USPS as states prepare for the midterms, eight weeks out.
A USPS whistleblower claims the agency is pursuing a ballot-screening system that would compare ballot barcodes against state voter lists, with a single bad barcode potentially discarding thousands of ballots. Sen. Blumenthal has pressed USPS for details and urged abandoning the plan as lawsuits and court orders complicate its implementation near an election, highlighting concerns about mail-in voting and government overreach.
A U.S. district judge blocked the USPS’s new mail-voting rules for a second time, delaying requirements for state voter lists and ballot formatting just as ballots are about to go out for the midterms. The decision preserves ongoing legal challenges to who can set election rules (states and Congress, not the president), with a Sept. 3 hearing on a refiled case that could affect ballots already in the mail.
CalMatters provides a concise primer for Californians ahead of Election Day on a wide-open governor’s race, outlining the candidates, explaining Prop. 14’s open primary, and offering practical voting tips: mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days, or you can vote in person or drop off your ballot; counties will report results on Election Night, with counting to wrap in about 30 days and certification within 38 days. The piece also links to a voter guide for deeper details on housing, justice, healthcare, and more.
Democrat Emily Gregory narrowly won Florida’s House District 87, which includes Mar-a-Lago, fueling a nationwide shift toward Democrats that CNN data analyst Harry Enten says could foretell a midterm blue wave and create trouble for Donald Trump, who endorsed the GOP candidate and voted by mail in the election.
President Trump has long railed against mail-in voting as “mail-in cheating,” yet his wife Melania and son Barron voted by mail in a Florida state legislature special election, and Trump himself had recently requested a mail-in ballot; the White House dismisses the revelations as a “non-story” as Trump pushes the SAVE America Act to curb mail voting.