US Postal Service says mail-in ballot restrictions now in effect

New restrictions on how the United States Postal Service will handle mail-in ballots are now in effect, even as challenges in court to the measures touted by US President Donald Trump continue.

Key points

• On Monday, the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the new measures by ruling in favour of the Trump administration.
• Despite claims by Trump regarding difficulties with mail-in voting, experts have discovered it to be secure.
• Voting by mail has long been a favourite target for Trump.
• The court did not decide on the constitutionality of the order.

In practice, the Postal Service announcement on Thursday comes as states are preparing to send out millions of ballots to voters through the mail ahead of US midterm elections scheduled throughout the US on November 3.

"The government subsequently received such relief from those injunctions, meaning the injunctions no longer preclude the implementation of the Rule for November 3, 2026 or any earlier federal election, " the independent federal agency remarked.

Notably, the new procedures mean the agency would compile lists of eligible voters using input from US states and only deliver ballots to individuals who are on those lists.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the new measures by ruling in favour of the Trump administration. Other court challenges to the rules continue, nevertheless, including a fresh case filed in a federal court in the US state of Massachusetts on Wednesday by 24 states. State attorneys-general argue the measures are unconstitutional and would additionally inflict "significant, imminent, and irreparable harm" on states by imposing "new and burdensome mail voting requirements" just before the November elections.

Voting by mail has long been a favourite target for Trump. This person has asserted that it breeds fraud despite robust evidence to the contrary and his own employ of the voting method. President Trump has asserted states have not done an adequate job in verifying who sends in mail-in ballots, and that those registered to vote meet requirements like being US citizens.

In March, Trump signed an executive order calling on his administration to create lists of eligible voters and the Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots only to those on those lists.

For context, the Postal Service had come up with regulations on how it would handle mail-in ballots based on that directive, but put its implementation on hold as Democratic authorities in dozens of states, along with voting rights advocacy groups, lodged legal challenges in federal courts.

Monday's Supreme Court case. It has a 6-3 conservative majority, ruled in the Trump administration's favor in one of those key challenges: Authorities from dozens of states had sued to block the presidential order, arguing that the US Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections and that Trump's changes could lead to chaos and partisan abuse.

In practice, the Trump administration then appealed to the Supreme Court on procedural grounds in late July after a judge ruled in the authorities' favour for the midterms, arguing that the states sued too shortly. The court did not decide on the constitutionality of the order.

Voting by mail has become increasingly popular with voters of both Republican and Democratic parties, accounting for regarding 30 percent of ballots cast during the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data. Despite claims by Trump regarding difficulties with mail-in voting, experts have discovered it to be secure. A 2025 Brookings Institution study discovered only concerning four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

Taken together, the developments around US Postal Service says mail-in ballot restrictions now in effect point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.