Judge blocks USPS mail-ballot rule for 14 days before midterms
What's next: The pause keeps the Postal Service from rejecting ballots from noncompliant states as the fight heads toward the Supreme Court.
A federal judge temporarily blocked a new USPS rule that would tighten federal oversight of mail-in voting, handing Democratic-led states a reprieve just weeks before the 2026 midterm elections. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on Thursday barred the Postal Service from enforcing the finalized rule for at least 14 days. The measure, pushed after an executive order by President Donald Trump, would require states to attach voter information to a unique barcode on each mail ballot and submit that data through a federal ballot mail portal. USPS had said it would not deliver ballots from states that failed to comply. Talwani wrote that states faced likely irreparable harm because complying before the election was practically impossible.