Try and Stop Us Digest — August 25, 2026

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The Supreme Court Cleared Trump's Mail Voting Order, But A Second Injunction Still Stops The Postal Service From Acting On It

The Court sided with Trump, but only ruled that the states challenging it sued too early, not on the legality of his mail-in voting executive order. The New York Times: The unsigned emergency order, with the three liberal justices dissenting, held that the provision directing Homeland Security to build state citizenship lists was an internal directive from the president to a subordinate that so far imposes no obligations on states, so the states could not show they had been harmed yet. The majority cautioned that nothing in its ruling means the administration's measures will necessarily be lawful once the plans are complete, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in dissent that the decision “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.”

Nothing about November has changed yet, because a second injunction still bars the Postal Service from making any changes to comply. AP: The administration moved late Monday to get that hold lifted as well, and the rule the Postal Service published Friday would take effect today if the courts clear the path, requiring specific envelope formatting and an electronic system that tells the agency who is voting by mail, with ballots going undelivered in states that don't comply. North Carolina sends its first ballots to military and overseas voters on Sept. 4 and California's go out in 11 days, with envelopes already printed.

Washington, where every county has voted by mail since 2011, says it will be back in court. Axios: Attorney General Nick Brown said the president is trying to block legitimate votes illegally and that his office stands ready to keep what he called unconstitutional overreach from taking effect. Brown added that the ruling “does not bless the substance of the president's actions” and simply says states must wait slightly longer to challenge them.

Trump Has Been Quietly Stacking The Postal Service Board With People Who Doubt The 2020 Election

Four weeks before he signed the mail voting order, Trump nominated four Republicans to the Postal Service Board of Governors. Three have questioned who won in 2020. The New York Times: The picks broke a longstanding practice of nominating governors in bipartisan pairs, and two are on a fast track that could reach a Senate floor vote when the chamber returns from recess in September, tipping the board to a majority loyal to the president. Asked who won in 2020 and whether the election was free and fair, one nominee answered only that Biden had been certified and added, “I have no information to reach a conclusion that it was free and fair,” then gave the same answer about 2024; none of the four has significant experience in mail or postal operations.

In The States

GEORGIA — The Republican nominee for governor told a rally attendee that Brian Kemp will call up the National Guard to watch the midterms. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: In audio obtained by the paper, a supporter at an Aug. 13 rally in Columbus said he feared Democrats would cheat and asked whether Trump could send federal troops, and Rick Jackson replied that they would get the Guard because Kemp “is going to watch it for us.” Federal law bars armed federal agents from polling places but governors have wide latitude over the Guard, and Kemp sent about 300 troops to Washington at Trump's request last year; Jackson's campaign says he never suggested deploying troops at polling places.

GEORGIA — Bishop William J. Barber II is trying to turn out five million low-wage and infrequent voters before November, and he launched the push from an Atlanta pulpit. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The civil rights leader preached Sunday at Big Bethel AME, which hosted the Atlanta Negro Voters League during the civil rights movement, as part of a 100 Days, 1,000 Marches to the Polls campaign that has drawn more than 40 organizations and 200 local groups. Barber tied suppressing the vote to stripping away a person's humanity and told the congregation, “We need to march to the polls in the states to change Washington,” days before Friday's March on Washington anniversary, where Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will speak.

MINNESOTA — Mike Lindell blew past his own recount deadline, saying the $825,000 is ready but the state's plan is unlawful. FOX 9 / CBS Minnesota: His campaign says the Secretary of State's office proposed recounting only the votes cast for Lindell and Lisa Demuth while setting the other candidates' votes aside without tallying them by name, which it argues violates a state law defining a recount as determining the number of votes validly cast for the office being recounted. Lindell has asked the state to waive the deadline until a court rules and is seeking an emergency injunction, while the state says the plan was approved by the Canvassing Board and follows procedures used for the past two decades.

SOUTH CAROLINA — The Justice Department is watching polling places in Charleston County today as Republicans pick a Senate nominee. WPDE: The department would not say which locations it is sending monitors to, and the county elections director called their presence “a routine and well-established part of the election process,” though the choice of Charleston stands out given that most of the state's Republicans live in the upstate. It follows federal monitoring of the Florida and Wyoming primaries last week and the announced plan to field 1,000 monitors nationwide in November.

What Experts Are Saying

A Common Cause North Carolina director says the state board's early voting cuts revive a tactic a federal court once found targeted Black voters with surgical precision. “Thanks to the Auditor, the surgeons are back.” — J. Sailor Jones, Common Cause North Carolina, NC Newsline

An election law scholar says the ruling may not change a thing about how people vote in November. “This doesn't necessarily mean anything in terms of November.” — Rick Hasen, Professor of Law, UCLA, AP

Headlines

Trump's Attacks on Voting

Mother Jones: SCOTUS Hands Trump a Temporary Win In His Crusade to Restrict Mail Voting

Votebeat: Supreme Court lifts 1 of 2 blocks on Trump's mail-voting executive order

Upcoming Elections

Al Jazeera: What to expect in elections in South Carolina, Georgia and Oklahoma