By VDC staff
Vermont’s plans to mail ballots to all active registered voters for the November general election remain unchanged – for now, anyway – despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday that removed one legal barrier to the Trump administration’s proposed new restrictions on voting by mail, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said Tuesday.
The Supreme Court on Aug. 24 lifted a lower-court injunction against portions of President Donald Trump’s March executive order concerning federal elections and mail voting. The 6-3 decision in Trump v. California concluded that the challenge to federal directives was premature at that stage, rather than deciding whether the administration’s proposed election rules are ultimately lawful.
The executive order directs the federal government to develop citizenship lists and calls for new U.S. Postal Service requirements governing election mail. Among other provisions, it directs USPS not to transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from individual voters unless states have enrolled those voters in a system tied to federal eligibility lists.
However, another federal court injunction remains in effect blocking implementation of the USPS provisions for the November election. The Supreme Court itself emphasized that its ruling does not establish that future measures implementing the executive order are lawful and leaves open additional court challenges.
That means Vermont election officials are continuing preparations under the state’s existing universal vote-by-mail system, Copeland Hanzas said.
“I am disappointed by the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday, but it does not change the status quo: USPS cannot move forward with its rule-making process until all legal challenges are resolved, and plenty remain,” Copeland Hanzas said.
“As such, my office and Vermont’s municipal clerks will continue our work to prepare for the General Election this November, which we expect will employ the usual universal vote-by-mail format Vermonters have become accustomed to,” she said.
Copeland Hanzas said her office will continue working with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office to monitor the litigation and “defend Vermont’s elections.”
The litigation is moving quickly because the November election is approaching. USPS has developed new requirements that would require states to provide voter information and use new markings and barcodes on ballot envelopes, but their implementation remains subject to the ongoing court fight.
The Supreme Court’s decision leaves open the possibility that the dispute could return to the courts once federal agencies take final action. The Court said federal courts generally review final rules rather than proposed regulations and stressed that Monday’s decision did not determine whether measures ultimately adopted by the administration would be legal.