States Are Already Spending Millions on November Elections, Including Printing Absentee Ballots That Would Be Unusable Under Trump's Rules

A group of 53 judges, mostly Republican appointees, called it "a recipe for confusion among voters, while attorneys general from 22 states and Washington, D.C. warned of "extraordinary threats to our democracy. The order would force states to add barcodes to ballots and rely on administration voter lists from the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. States are already spending millions on November elections, including printing absentee ballots that would be unusable under Trump's rules.

Election workers face the "untenable position" of implementing the order "on pain of threats of criminal prosecution" with elections underway in most states. The states argued the order would give the USPS "far-reaching new powers" and risk disenfranchising millions of mail voters, especially those with disabilities and in rural areas. A federal appeals court last month found "unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials" would "threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters, with even a Trump appointee agreeing the order could impose "concrete injury.

Trump is also pushing the SAVE America Act, requiring proof of citizenship to register. Critics fear centralizing election control aims to boost Republicans and suppress Democratic turnout. The judges wrote, "The injury is not abstract.

It is the current displacement of the States' power to create, enforce, and administer their own election rules. Administration officials admitted federal data would be handed to states before citizens could verify its accuracy, potentially removing eligible voters without recourse. Trump's lawyer John Sauer argued the injunction "preemptively" decided agency actions would be unlawful and imposes "irreparable harm by impeding election integrity efforts.