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The American Postal Workers Union has launched a television ad campaign in North Carolina defending the integrity of mail-in voting ahead of the fall midterm elections. Local union leaders say claims of widespread fraud are unfounded and insulting to postal workers, who they say handle every ballot with care regardless of political preference. A bipartisan poll from Hart Research and North Star Opinion Research found 34% of voters rely on mail-in voting, including nearly half of seniors, while 35% believe it should be abolished amid years of fraud claims from President Donald Trump.

The campaign follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting Trump's proposed restrictions on mailed ballots nationwide, though Attorney General Todd Blanche said the ruling was partly about timing and that election security efforts will continue beyond this cycle. North Carolina election officials say absentee voting procedures remain unchanged, with several security measures in place and voter fraud treated as a felony. Local election officials elsewhere, including in Colorado's El Paso County, note many jurisdictions already use secure, barcode-tracked ballot envelopes, and warn that Trump's proposed uniform verification system could create counting delays or compromise confidential voter protections. Officials expect the issue to resurface before the 2027 election cycle.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 unsigned order, declined to disturb a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of a new U.S. Postal Service rule ahead of the 2026 midterms, drawing praise from officials in Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, and other states. The rule, issued after a March executive order from President Trump, would have required states to submit lists of mail-eligible voters and adopt standardized, trackable envelopes, with USPS withholding delivery of noncompliant ballots. The court said the government was unlikely to succeed on the merits given the midterms' proximity; Justices Alito and Thomas dissented, while Kavanaugh agreed the restrictions should not take effect for this election but suggested the government's underlying arguments could be reconsidered if similar rules were proposed earlier for a future election.

Michigan and 24 other states, including Illinois, sued within hours of the rule's publication, leading to a restraining order and then a Sept. 4 injunction that the high court left intact. Officials in Michigan, Illinois, and Colorado called the ruling a win for state authority over elections, while Trump denounced the decision on social media, criticizing the justices he appointed. The court did not rule on the rule's underlying legality, leaving that fight to continue in lower courts; existing mail-ballot processes remain unchanged as states begin distributing ballots for November. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the ruling turned partly on timing and that election-security efforts would continue beyond this cycle. In North Carolina, postal workers and union leaders have publicly defended mail-in voting's integrity amid ongoing fraud claims, as absentee voting proceeds under established security measures.

Washington, joined by 24 other states, filed a new federal lawsuit in Massachusetts seeking to block President Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting, days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that states could not yet prove harm since the directive hadn't taken effect. The court did not rule on the order's constitutionality. Separately, a federal judge lifted a broader injunction that had kept the order from applying before November's election.

The finalized USPS rules require a federal eligible-voter list, specific ballot envelope designs, tracking barcodes, and election officials submitting voter data to a federal portal. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and Attorney General Nick Brown said return ballots currently lack trackable barcodes, risking rejection, and warned it's nearly impossible to redesign ballots before the election. Hobbs urged voters to use drop boxes as a contingency and said the state would resist sharing private voter data while updating contingency plans regardless of the lawsuit's outcome.

Roughly two dozen Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, including Washington, Wisconsin, California and Pennsylvania, filed a new lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service on August 26, challenging a rule implementing President Trump's executive order limiting mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. The suit, filed in a Massachusetts federal court, comes days after the Supreme Court lifted an injunction blocking part of the order, ruling the earlier Democratic challenge was premature rather than affirming its legality. California's suit followed shortly after, with Attorney General Rob Bonta calling the rule a "clear violation of the Constitution" and citing the state's heavy reliance on mail voting.

The USPS rule requires states to register mail voters into a new USPS database and get federal approval for ballot envelope designs featuring digital barcodes before ballots can be delivered; USPS says it won't deliver ballots to voters absent from the list or in noncompliant envelopes. State officials argue the rule violates the Constitution's assignment of election authority to states and risks disenfranchising voters this close to the election. The coalition seeks a temporary restraining order. Trump's original order remains blocked under a separate injunction, and the administration defends the rule as an election-security measure, though it remains unclear whether it will affect November's elections.