Mail-in voting will continue as usual in Arizona after the Supreme Court denied President Donald Trump's request to tighten mail ballot rules for the U.S. Postal Service.
The high court left in place a preliminary injunction that blocks the Postal Service from enforcing a new rule that would have given it a role in deciding which voters should receive mail-in ballots.
The decision came less than a month before ballots are mailed in Arizona on Oct. 7.
“I am glad that SCOTUS has made the decision that removes voting roadblocks and continues allowing Arizonans to vote in the way that best fits their schedule,” Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said in a written statement.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, seen here in a televised debate last month, says mail-in voting will continue as usual in Arizona after the Supreme Court rejected an effort by President Donald Trump to tighten mail ballot rules for the U.S. Postal Service.
Any changes to mail-in voting could have a significant impact in Arizona, where some 80% of voters cast ballots by mail.
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In a sweeping executive order on voting in March, Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to create "state citizenship lists" of eligible voters. He also ordered Postal Service to only deliver ballots to voters on the approved mail-in ballot list.
The president's March 31 order was met with legal challenges from voting rights groups and states, including from Arizona.
In its Sept. 14 decision, the Supreme Court said that would reject the Trump administration's request to move forward with the new rule because "state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections."
The preliminary injunction will remain in place through the Nov. 3 general election. It was the result of a lawsuit by the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups.
“The Postal Service exists to deliver Americans’ mail — not to rewrite election rules, demand voters’ personal information, or decide which ballots make it through the system. This was an extraordinary attempt to interfere with voting in all 50 states,” League of Women Voters CEO Celina Stewart said in a written statement.
For his part, Trump panned the conservative-majority court’s ruling as “another bad decision” in a lengthy Truth Social post. He doubled down on his criticism of mail-in voting and praised Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas for dissenting with the “horrible, highly political, ruling.”
“It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the Radical Left ‘Dumocrats,’ on Mail-In Ballots, a much easier thing to do - And now they have an open field to do so! The Supreme Court has really let our Country down!” Trump wrote.
Fontes, the state’s chief elections officer, rejected the idea that more access to voting weakens security around elections.
“For decades, Arizona’s mail-in voting system has served the vast majority of voters each election season,” Fontes said. “As our country’s executive office continues to attack elections, it is crucial for us to continue rejecting the notion that access and security are mutually exclusive when it comes to running strong elections.”
