California Mail Voting Stands for Now as Judge Blocks Trump's Ballot Rules

More than 80% of California voters use mail ballots, and state law requires one be sent to every registered voter.

A federal judge has again blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing President Trump's new mail ballot rules before the November 3 election. The agency doesn't hold that authority over elections, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled on September 4, 2026, the Los Angeles Times reported. The U.S. Supreme Court hasn't acted on the administration's emergency request to let the rules take effect anyway.

For a California voter, this is a fight about the envelope in the mailbox. State law requires that a ballot be mailed to every registered voter. More than 80% of the state's voters have used those ballots in recent elections, the Times reported. Under the new rules, the Postal Service could turn away a ballot that doesn't match a voter list the agency holds.

Los Angeles County voters get their ballots under that same state law.

What's being decided

The rules trace to an executive order Trump signed in March. They'd require states to hand over complete voter lists to the Postal Service. They'd also require new ballot envelopes printed with individualized voter bar codes of the agency's design, and they'd let the agency reject ballots that don't match. The order directed the Department of Homeland Security to build its own list of eligible citizen voters for comparison.

Talwani, an appointee of President Obama, found that the challengers will probably win the core argument in the case. That argument is that the Constitution assigns election rules to the states and to Congress, not to the president. Election officials from around the country told the court that compliance is “likely impossible.” Disenfranchisement would be more than likely if the agency went ahead, she wrote.

Who wants what

Trump has defended the order as a response to fraud on a wide scale, including votes he says are cast by people who aren't citizens. Election experts outside government have found no evidence of fraud at anything like that scale, according to the Times.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is helping lead the states' challenge, described the ruling as longer-term relief that keeps the rules on hold while the case proceeds. A Bonta spokesperson, Walter Garcia, said the Justice Department brushed past standard procedural rules by going to the high court before the lower courts had ruled.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that Talwani's earlier restraining order was baseless and would cause serious irreparable harm. He asked the court to say plainly that states should start complying now.

A Postal Service employee whose name wasn't released alleged that the agency rushed the project onto new and untested computer systems, defying an earlier court order. Congressional Democrats released that statement, and Bonta's office put it into the court record. The Postal Service said the system was built on an accelerated schedule but that quality and security standards “were not compromised.” Steven W. Monteith, the agency's chief customer and marketing officer, said in a declaration that officials were still refining a key online portal.

What each outcome does

If the block holds through Election Day, mail voting runs on the rules states already use. California keeps sending a ballot to every registered voter.

If the justices grant a stay, states would be expected to begin turning over lists, printing new envelopes and submitting to Postal Service matching. That's the step Sauer's petition asks for by name.

David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said before the ruling that he expected the changes to be blocked. One reason, he said, is that election officials keep telling courts they couldn't carry the rules out even if they wanted to. Becker helped nearly 100 local election officials from red and blue states file to that effect in separate litigation.

The Supreme Court set aside an earlier Talwani order on August 24. The justices called the states' challenge premature because the Postal Service hadn't formally begun the changes, and said they weren't deciding whether the rules are lawful. The agency issued them formally on August 21, and the new suits followed.

The emergency petition is still before the Supreme Court. Election Day is November 3, 2026.

Source: latimes.com, retrieved September 5, 2026.