Why the Supreme Court ruling on mail voting won’t have an immediate impact in Maine
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows answers questions from the media at the Maine State House in May. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
AUGUSTA — A new U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to move forward with restrictions on mail-in ballots is not expected to have an immediate impact on the 2026 elections in Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Tuesday.
An injunction in a separate federal case over mail-in ballots will prevent changes from taking place right away, and more legal action is expected to come on the issue, Bellows said.
“This is not over, and we will see the Trump administration in court,” Bellows told reporters during a media availability Tuesday.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday in Trump v. California to allow President Donald Trump to proceed with an executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to help decide rules for mail-in ballots. The order would also have the U.S. Department of Homeland Security create lists of U.S. citizens for determining voter eligibility.
Trump has long pushed for restrictions on mail-in ballots — despite voting by mail himself — and he has long alleged widespread problems with the American election system without providing evidence to back up his claims.
The court’s ruling allowing Trump’s order is not final, and it does not determine the legality of the order. Instead, the court ruled that states who sued did not have the legal right to challenge it.
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The ruling came a few days after the Postal Service on Friday finalized plans for how it would carry out Trump’s order. In the 95-page rule, the Postal Service said it would not deliver mail ballots in states that do not share voter data with it.
The Postal Service also would review envelopes for compliance with new standards before accepting ballots into its system, including checking that the recipient is enrolled with the Postal Service to receive a mail ballot and that the ballot envelope meets certain specifications.
But the Postal Service said it would not move forward with implementing the rule for the 2026 election while an injunction in a separate case, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, remains in place.
Absentee ballots will become available in Maine starting Oct. 4. Bellows, also citing the injunction, said that “for now, (this year’s election) is business as usual.”
The proposed changes would make it harder for the elderly, people leading busy lives and people with disabilities to vote by mail, she said.
“We are using the same envelopes we’ve always used,” Bellows said. “Those have already been ordered, just as they have been in election jurisdictions all over the country. And we are certainly not about to turn over voter data into some federal database, as the Trump administration has been demanding now for some time.”
This story contains reporting from the Associated Press.
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Tagged: election 2026, elections, U.S. Postal Service
Rachel covers state government and politics for the Portland Press Herald. It’s her third beat at the paper after stints covering City Hall and education. Prior to her arrival at the Press Herald in. More by Rachel Ohm
