Kalle Benallie
ICT
The Supreme Court ruled on Aug. 24 that states are unable to sue against President Trump’s executive order that restricts voting by mail. The ruling cuts close the time in which any remaining legal attempts to challenge Trump’s orders on voting. Many states are nearing the time when they send out mail-in ballots.
Organizations focused on Native voters are frustrated and the attempts on restricting mail-in voting feels somewhat intentional.
Calvin Hedrick, California Native Vote Project, Mountain Maidu, said Native people already face a lot of barriers like limited transportation and long distances to polling places.
“It’s not like in a lot of tribal communities they have mass transit to make it so voting by mail could be really important for them,” Hedrick said.
He added how inconvenient it is and how it makes it realistic that some Indigenous voters may not be able to vote.
“This is going to be very difficult, that makes that job as an election official really difficult,” he said.
Triston Black, Navajo, an organizing director at Arizona Native Vote, said Arizona Native Vote was with the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission at a voting rights conference on Aug. 24 in Twin Arrows, Arizona.
Black reiterated that voting by mail is a popular voting method in Arizona. About 80 percent of voters in Arizona voted by mail in 2022 and Black said about 64 percent of Native voters voted by mail.
“Our analysis of this past Monday too was it’s part of the intent to share information that creates instability when we’re talking about election integrity,” he said. “But one thing that comes clear to voters is that they can still vote by mail, still vote early in person, or vote on election day.”
He recommends voters to send your ballot as soon as you fill it out and periodically check on your local secretary of state websites to see if it was accepted.
“A lot of external factors and people outside are when they see the power, especially the Native vote, they’ll do anything they can to stop that. But that’s one thing we’re sharing with community members is, as a voter, as a community member, whether you’re an elder or a first time voter, just turn 18, you hold that power as a Native person when you come and cash your vote,” Black said.
According to States United, nearly one-third of U.S. citizens voted by mail in 2024. The Native American Rights Fund released a report that between 2020 and 2024, rejections for missed deadlines increased 134 percent in counties where Native Americans make up more than 25 percent of the population. In comparison it rose 55 percent nationally, which NARF said it’s “strong evidence that USPS network disruptions had a significant impact in Indian Country.”
“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell,” the majority wrote in an unsigned order.
While the emergency order is not final, it does have the potential to create chaos around voting across the country, with Trump often questioning the integrity of elections and the nation’s highest court again the possible arbiter of a political controversy.
Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the order. They argued that the Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections, and Trump’s changes could lead to chaos and partisan abuse.
“The consequences of allowing such transformative changes to take effect so close to this fall’s elections would be extreme,” attorneys for the states wrote. Dozens of state and local election officials weighed in, asking the justices to leave the order frozen while election preparations are already underway.
Trump’s executive order, signed in March, calls on his administration to create lists of eligible voters and orders the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists.
New requirements released Friday would forbid the Postal Service from sending mail ballots from any state that does not comply with Trump’s order.
The U.S. Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes.
In June, a federal judge in Boston froze the order for November’s election. The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court on procedural grounds in late July, arguing that the states sued too soon. They also pointed to another ruling out of Washington, where a judge allowed Trump’s order to proceed. An appeals court backed that decision, while still leaving room for future court action if the changes are implemented.
Federal attorneys argued that the Massachusetts order “blocks the government’s ability to finalize and implement the President’s proposed policies to promote election integrity for the upcoming federal elections in November.”
Initial ballots are scheduled to be sent to North Carolina’s overseas and military voters in just over a week, on Sept. 4. Other states will follow after.
Trump’s previous attempts to restrict mail-in voting
The Supreme Court has previously ruled against Trump-backed arguments on mail-in ballots, finding in a 5-4 decision that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day. That case was decided after full briefing and arguments, rather than on the court’s emergency docket.
Trump has blamed mail voting — without credible evidence — for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. He has promoted the proposed changes in his executive order as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting.
He’s also repeatedly pressed for the passage of the legislation that requires proof of citizenship to vote. Noncitizen voting has been shown to be exceedingly rare, and is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.
Using mail ballots has become increasingly popular with voters of both parties, with about 30 percent of all ballots cast that way during the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data. The process also is secure. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
