Attorney General Ellison secures temporary block on USPS unlawful rule about mail voting

Federal court issues temporary restraining order to block rule from taking effect, calls compliance with it ‘practically impossible’ before November election

Close to 450K Minnesotans voted safely and securely by mail in 2024 election

August 28, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and a coalition of 25 states have secured a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, temporarily blocking a new rule by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that would have imposed burdensome requirements on vote-by-mail systems ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. On August 26, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition sued to block the unlawful rule.

“A court has once again rightly blocked another illegal attempt by Donald Trump to take over America’s elections so he can rig them in his favor. This has to stop and I will keep taking Trump to court until it does,” Attorney General Ellison said. “Elections across America are fair and secure, and nowhere more so than Minnesota, which runs the best elections in the country. While Trump keeps doing everything he can to cast doubt on this fundamental fact and weaponize the federal government against our elections — including by inciting a violent insurrection on the seat of our democracy — we in Minnesota will keep standing unflinchingly for our right to exercise our vote freely and without intimidation, including from Donald Trump.”

The order blocks USPS from requiring states to obtain the federal government’s approval of ballot and return-envelope designs, register for a new USPS portal for tracking voter information, input information for each of their state’s voters into the portal, and comply with other provisions.

The court found that compliance with the rule before the November elections was “practically impossible,” noting that states do not have the time to redesign and produce new ballots, update state-administered election systems, train state and local election officials, and upload a massive set of voter information to a new federal portal.

The court found that these requirements created a significant risk of disenfranchisement, particularly because USPS’s rule neither provided a deadline to the states for ballot and envelope designs nor guaranteed a turnaround time for USPS’s approval of those designs. The court concluded that states face irreparable harm because many had already ordered their ballots, with some states required by state law to begin sending them to voters as early as next week.

History of the unlawful rule

On March 31, President Trump issued an Executive Order attempting to establish a national list of eligible voters and directing the U.S. Postal Service to transmit mail ballots only to voters on the list. On August 21, USPS announced a new rule implementing the President’s demands that require states to register every voter who is eligible to vote by mail with USPS and tasking USPS with compiling the registered voters into state-specific lists. The rule also establishes new design requirements for the mail-in ballot envelopes created by states, which states are required to meet and get approved by USPS. Under the rule, USPS will not deliver ballots to voters who do not appear on the USPS-generated lists and will not deliver ballots in envelopes that fail to comply with the rule’s new standards.  

On August 26, Attorney General Ellison joined a coalition of 25 states in filing a lawsuit to block the unlawful rule. Now that Attorney General Ellison and the coalition have secured the temporary restraining order, they now seek a preliminary injunction to stop the rule from taking effect while the lawsuit proceeds and until a final court decision is made.  

With the start of the general election season mere weeks away, the coalition argued the rule inflicts significant, irreparable harm on states by imposing burdensome mail voting requirements that risk disenfranchising eligible voters. The coalition argues that USPS’s rule upends successful, longstanding vote-by-mail procedures and violates federal statutes and the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections. 

Over the past several decades, voting by mail has become more popular across the country. In the 2024 general election, 446,576 Minnesotans voted by mail. Since the inception of vote-by-mail, Congress has never exercised its authority to limit it, and in fact, has only taken action to expand and protect mail voting for military and overseas voters. Congress has also never authorized USPS to monitor or control the transmission of mail ballots.

Attorney General Ellison was joined in filing this lawsuit, which was co-led by the attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington, by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.