Trump, thwarted by lower courts, appeals to the Supremes to allow him to block mail ballots

News and commentary from a Florida perspective for all Americans.

By J.C. Bruce

Tropic Press

Donald Trump, who votes by mail, hates vote-by-mail and wants to do away with it.

He hates it because mail-in voting allows more people to vote, and he correctly figures that the more people voting, the less likely things will go his way. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time, after all, so his plan is to make it harder for disbelievers to cast their ballots.

He drapes all this in the mantra of election security, but that’s nonsense. But the owner of Truth Social has never let the truth get in the way.

Now he wants the U.S. Supreme Court to give him a pass to take over elections.

He wants to enforce an executive order that will have the effect of curtailing mail-in voting nationwide.

Presidents have no authority to do that. Voting is the exclusive province of the states. And even if voting procedures were to be federalized, the president—let’s be clear about this even if it upsets Trump—is not a king.

One federal judge has already told him no.

And a federal appeals court has already told him no.

Trump doesn’t like that word, no. So today, Trump asked the Supreme Court to overrule the lower courts and, fundamentally, make him the election czar.

As CNN reports:

Trump’s order would give the US Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security new roles in screening state voter rolls for potential non-citizen voters.

Signed in March, the president’s directive would require states to submit lists of eligible mail voters to the US Postal Service, which would be barred from sending ballots to anyone not on those lists. It would also require states to use individualized ballot tracking barcodes on ballot envelopes. And it would “prioritize” federal prosecution of state election officials who send or receive ballots to non-citizens or others ineligible to vote.

Here’s what the National Vote at Home Institute has to say about all this:

“In 2024, roughly 30 percent of voters voted by mail, and in 2020—at the height of the pandemic—43 percent of voters mailed in their ballots. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) called that election “the most secure in American history.”

“A large majority of Americans support the right to vote by mail, according to the Pew Research Center, and 34 states currently allow vote by mail for any reason. Nine states—Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Hawaii, Vermont, California, and the District of Columbia – have instituted “universal vote at home” where everyone automatically gets a ballot mailed to them at home. This convenience means better turnout—a boon for democracy regardless of the result.

“And as for Trump’s claims of fraud? Even the Heritage Foundation can’t find any. Its “database” of election fraud lists just 138 total cases nationwide, virtually none of them involving mail-in ballots. Government watchdogs called the 2020 election—despite the widespread use of mail-in ballots—“the most secure in American history.”

“Trump’s efforts to end vote-by-mail are an extension of his efforts to control the nation’s elections apparatus in advance of the 2026 midterms and to tilt the system in his favor. And if he succeeds, he could disenfranchise the millions of Americans— including seniors and people with disabilities—who depend on vote by mail to participate in elections.”

Read More:

Why Does Trump Hate Vote-By-Mail?

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J.C. Bruce