Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes vowed to keep fighting after the U.S. Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump a legal win in his push to expand the U.S. Postal Service’s role in elections and clamp down on mail-in voting nationwide.
Lower courts moved too soon when they paused parts of Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting, the conservative-majority Supreme Court said in an Aug. 24 order.
The news came days after the Postal Service finalized a rule on mail-in ballots at Trump’s direction, although it is still blocked from being implemented by another legal challenge from voting groups.
For now, nothing has changed for voters, Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said in a written statement.
“The most important thing for
Arizona voters to know today is simple: nothing has changed,” Fontes said. “You can still vote by mail in Arizona. Our election officials are preparing for the election, and voters should continue making their plans to participate just as they normally would.”
The high court order ruled on the timing of the case, not the merits.
“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell,” the Supreme Court wrote in an unsigned emergency opinion.
Arizona is among a coalition of states that sued the Republican president over his March executive order on elections. Mayes, one of the Democratic attorneys general involved in the lawsuit, called the latest ruling “procedural” in a written statement.
“Make no mistake: this fight is far from over. States run their own elections. Not the Postal Service. Not the President,” Mayes said. “We will continue to challenge this illegal USPS rule and ensure Arizonans can cast their ballots as they have for decades — and without interference from the federal government.”
The Supreme Court's emergency opinion is the latest development in Trump's controversial effort to nationalize elections in his second term. The president made sweeping claims of election interference during a prime-time address in July, but he offered little evidence to back up what he said.
“Maricopa County is already in compliance with the requirements addressed by today’s Supreme Court decision, so the ruling will not affect our voters or change their ability to receive a ballot by mail. Our focus remains on preparing for a secure, efficient, and well-run election for every eligible voter in Maricopa County," Republican Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap said in a written statement.
If USPS were able to move forward with the president's desired rule, it would give the Postal Service a role in deciding which voters should receive mail-in ballots. The president's executive order also calls for the Department of Homeland Security to create "state citizenship lists" of eligible voters.
The high court issued the emergency opinion on ideological lines, with the three liberal justices dissenting. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called the court order a “Kafkaesque nightmare” in her dissent.
“This ruling violates well-established precedents concerning this Court’s equitable discretion and needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections,” wrote Jackson, who was nominated for the bench by former Democratic President Joe Biden. “It also lets another shoe drop in the Kafkaesque nightmare that our precedents have been steadily creating for certain plaintiffs who seek to bring election-related challenges.”
Any disruption to mail-in voting could have an impact in Arizona, where the method is popular. Roughly 90% of Arizona voters cast their ballots in the mail in the July primary, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
But even if remaining legal hurdles were cleared, the Postal Service would face a serious time crunch to implement Trump’s directive before the midterm elections get underway, former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer noted. Early ballots go out in Arizona on Oct. 7.
Richer, a Republican, handled mail-in voting as part of his duties as county recorder. He contributes to The Arizona Republic’s opinion section.
“If done right, this shouldn't have any impact on Arizona voters,” Richer said. “There will be more of an administrative process now because election officials will have to forward every single mail ballot recipient to the USPS and the USPS will have to do whatever it does to deem that kosher before mailing out those ballots.”
He added that Trump’s moves to nationalize elections are “unprecedented.”
“The attempts at federal involvement in election administration these past two years are unprecedented. Previous presidents haven't done this,” Richer said. “No one's ever tried to get the USPS or any of these other agencies involved in election administration.”
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Elections in Arizona continue as normal despite Supreme Court ruling
