Politics
Illinois Joins Other States in Suing US Postal Service in Fight Over Mail-In Voting
Delivery vans bearing the logo sit during a protest staged as part of a countrywide National Day of Action Tuesday, July 28, 2026, outside the main United States Postal Service headquarters in northeast Denver. (AP Photo / David Zalubowski)
Illinois and two dozen other Democratic-led states have filed suit against the U.S. Postal Service, challenging a Trump administration order that seeks to limit mail-in voting ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Wednesday announced the lawsuit, arguing President Donald Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional and risks disenfranchising voters by preventing states from effectively administering their vote-by-mail programs.
“The right to vote is our most fundamental right, and it should not matter whether ballots are submitted early, sent by mail or cast on Election Day,” Raoul said in a statement. “Throughout my career, I have been committed to protecting voting rights, and I will continue to defend these rights from any and all attacks.”
The lawsuit comes on the same day a federal judge in Boston agreed to lift an order prohibiting the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump’s order for November’s elections. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani wrote that she was “compelled” to do so after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that a similar injunction she granted in a separate case was premature.
Talwani nevertheless said the executive order could unleash “chaos” and referred to it as “likely unconstitutional.”
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.
A majority of the Supreme Court justices ruled against the states in a related case this week, but did not say Trump’s order was legal, and it remains barred from taking effect.
Rather than saying that Trump’s order is legal, the Supreme Court said Monday it was too early for Democratic-run states to challenge it in June, when they convinced a federal judge in Boston to freeze the order for November’s election. That effectively restarts the legal fight over the order in an incredibly compressed timeline.
Raoul and the coalition of attorneys general from two dozen states argued in their lawsuit Trump’s order inflicts “significant, irreparable harm” on states by imposing burdensome mail voting requirements with the first mail-in ballots due to be sent out next week.
Illinois and Cook County leaders this week sought to reassure voters about the safety of mail-in voting, while also encouraging them to return their ballots as early as they can to ensure they’re properly counted.
In Illinois, mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and be received no less than two weeks after the election date.
Through their lawsuit, the attorneys general are seeking emergency relief while arguing the Trump administration is “trying to undermine our citizens’ access to voting.”
“The U.S. Constitution plainly gives states — not the executive branch — the power to administer elections,” Raoul said, “and I am committed to swiftly fighting against this blatantly unconstitutional rule. I will not let the president sow chaos into the upcoming general election.”
