CLOCK'S TICKING

Trump’s Plot to Reshape Midterms Starts to Unravel

The 80-year-old president is running out of time to execute his preferred rules on mail-in voting.

President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail-in voting has been hit by a reality check as election officials say there’s just not enough time to fulfill his demands.

A federal judge has blocked Trump’s plot for now, as the U.S. Postal Service has been temporarily barred from enacting rules that would allow the Trump administration to decide which voters are allowed to cast mail-in ballots in November’s midterm elections.

Trump, a vocal critic of mail-in voting despite frequently using the method to vote himself, has been trying to get the USPS to regulate and approve the design of states’ ballot envelopes and regulate a federal database of absentee voters.

The Supreme Court could still intervene, but the Trump administration is running out of time as hundreds of thousands of voters will soon be getting their ballots sent to them as soon as this week.

Richard Hasen, a UCLA law professor and director of the school’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, told The Washington Post that “it is already too late” to enact Trump’s executive order.

“I cannot see how any court in good conscience could allow them to be implemented for the midterm elections,” Hasen said.

Voters in the swing state of North Carolina are already beginning to see their ballots come in the mail as the state began mailing them out Friday, as a state law requires them to be sent out to voters who requested them 60 days before an election.

And in Wisconsin, another swing state, officials do not need to mail out ballots until mid-September, but many local municipalities are sending them out earlier, and officials are recommending that they do so.

“It’s more important that we get the ballots out because there are other ways at least to return them” in ballot drop boxes or at government offices, Ann Jacobs, a Democrat on Wisconsin’s elections commission, told The Washington Post.

She added, “But if you can’t even get the ballots out, people can’t vote.”

Some election officials have said that while they do not expect Trump’s demands to go into effect ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, they are still developing plans to ensure a smooth election if they do.

Some municipalities are considering locations where voters can get and drop off their ballots, and others are considering implementing more ballot drop boxes to create more ways for voters to return them.

In New Mexico, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told the Post that state officials are in talks with FedEx and UPS about potentially using their services to deliver mail ballots over USPS.

“We are still planning for plan B in a worst-case scenario,” she explained. “There are other ways to deliver ballots.”

The president’s push to change the protocol around mail-in voting comes as Republicans are expected to see disastrous results in the upcoming midterm elections.

Trump, whose approval rating has sunk to one of the lowest of any president, has said his strategy to muster support for the GOP will be to focus on touting his own record as he campaigns.

“I’m going to go out, and I’m going to campaign like I did for myself,” he said last week.

“But some people like me more than they like the party,” Trump proclaimed. “I mean, you can’t be insulted by it. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Annabella RosciglioneReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.