US midterms begin with chaos over mail-voting crackdown

RULES IN LIMBO

Trump’s March executive order would require states to provide the US Postal Service with lists of eligible mail voters through a new federal portal.

Ballot envelopes would also need individual barcodes and other design features, with USPS empowered to refuse mailings that fail to meet its requirements.

The administration says the rules are meant to protect election integrity, although it has produced no evidence of significant fraud through mail voting.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the practice as corrupt while using it himself – including to vote in Florida’s Republican primary just last month.

The uncertainty comes on top of a voting system that already differs dramatically from state to state.

Some automatically send ballots to registered voters, others require voters to request them, while identification requirements, return deadlines and rules for counting late-arriving ballots vary across the country.

Election officials now face the additional prospect of federal requirements changing while voting is already underway.

“The states set the time, place and manner of elections in this country, not the president,” Marc Elias, the founder of voting rights platform Democracy Docket, said on his YouTube show.

“In fact, the Congress can override the states in many instances, but in no instance can the president. The president is given no power over federal elections.”

North Carolina officials said Friday’s mailings would proceed normally and that the state has no plans to use the federal portal at the center of the dispute.

But time is rapidly running out for any nationwide overhaul.