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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with Donald Trump with a ruling that opens the door to restrict Oregon’s vote-by-mail system in the midterm election.
In a joint statement, several high-ranking state officials cautioned the 6-3 emergency court decision is not the final word.
“The bottom line is: Oregon’s elections are secure, accurate, and fair,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read writes. “They will proceed as planned this November, free from any illegal federal interference. We will stand up for Oregonians’ right to vote and run elections. We will continue to challenge this over-reaching executive order in court with the Attorney General when the time is right.”
In March, Trump issued Executive Order 14399, which directs the U.S. Postal Service to collect lists of mail-in or absentee voters and issue ballots only to those preauthorized by the federal government. It was part of a larger effort to curtail mail-in voting, which Trump has falsely claimed cost him the 2020 election. He further claims without evidence that large numbers of noncitizens routinely swing elections in favor of Democrats.
In response, a coalition of state attorneys general including Oregon’s Dan Rayfield sued to block EO 14399. In separate rulings this summer, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani struck down aspects of the order. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court.
In Monday’s ruling, the high court’s conservative majority held that the states challenging the president’s order hadn’t proven they’d been harmed by voting rules that had yet to take effect. The court did not rule on the legality of the president’s order. It did, however, rule the president’s order doesn’t infringe on states’ constitutional duty to hold federal elections.
“This internal directive does not regulate the States’ voter registration processes,” the opinion states. “Nor does it impinge on the States’ authority ‘to create and enforce a legal code’ for elections.’”
The ruling allows the U.S. Postal Service to check mail ballots against lists of citizens maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“This ruling violates well-established precedents concerning this Court’s equitable discretion and needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writes in dissent.
Some states are less than two weeks from sending out mail-in ballots for the midterm election, which are 70 days away. Oregon’s county elections offices will begin sending out ballots in October.
Gov. Tina Kotek called the president’s order an “assault on democracy.”
“Oregon has been conducting elections by mail-in voting safely and securely for decades,” she writes. “My message to the President is clear: Keep your hands off our elections.”
In a statement, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield called the emergency order a temporary setback.
States have not yet submitted voter lists to the federal government, according to Rayfield’s office. “Should USPS unlawfully attempt to interfere with Oregon’s vote-by-mail process, AG Rayfield will immediately sue to stop that threat,” reads the notice from Rayfield’s office. “As he has done repeatedly in the last year, AG Rayfield will continue defending Oregon’s election system against unlawful federal interference.”
Politico reported Trump himself votes by mail, including last month in a Florida primary.
