With mail-in ballots set to land in Southern California mailboxes within weeks, county election officials say residents should not let ongoing legal wrangling in Washington over mail voting rules discourage them from casting a ballot this fall — but they are urging voters to act early rather than wait until the last minute.
California remains locked in a legal fight with the Trump administration over the president’s push to impose new restrictions on universal mail-in voting. The dispute has left some voters wondering whether mail ballots will even be an option for the November 3 election, and if so, whether it’s still safe to use one.
The short answer from election officials: yes and yes. Mail voting will remain available this year, and it remains a secure and generally reliable method of casting a ballot. Still, county registrars are encouraging voters not to wait until the deadline to return their ballots, given the uncertainty swirling around the U.S. Postal Service’s role in the process.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether President Trump can direct the Postal Service to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. Trump has proposed creating a federal database of registered voters that the Postal Service would use to verify that mail ballots are delivered only to eligible U.S. citizens. Under his plan, the Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots in states that don’t share that voter information.
The legal battle, which has dragged on for months, has left voters — and even some election officials — confused, something voting rights advocates say may be the point.
Despite the uncertainty, California election officials insist the state is prepared to run its elections smoothly no matter how the Supreme Court rules. County registrars are monitoring the litigation closely, but they are also moving forward with plans to mail ballots as usual ahead of the October 5 deadline. State and local officials are encouraging voters worried about postal delays to vote early and take advantage of California’s other options, including official drop boxes and in-person voting centers.
“As we do in every election, we have contingency plans and backup plans in place,” said Tricia Webber, Santa Cruz County’s clerk and registrar of voters and president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
Some counties, including Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, are looking into setting up temporary voting centers where residents could request and drop off ballots in person. In Santa Cruz County, Webber said her office is working on plans to send its mobile voting unit around the county to give residents another way to cast a ballot.
“Until there’s an answer,” Webber said, referring to the pending court ruling, “California counties are going to continue to operate business as usual.”
WHAT TRUMP WANTS THE POSTAL SERVICE TO DO
In March, Trump signed an executive order aiming to give the federal government control over who receives mail ballots. Within days, more than 20 Democratic attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, sued the administration, arguing the Constitution gives only Congress and state governments authority over election administration.
Federal district and appellate courts sided with the Democratic-led states, upholding a preliminary injunction that bars the Postal Service from carrying out any part of the plan while the lawsuit continues.
The core legal questions remain unresolved. Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to keep planning how it would carry out the executive order, prompting Democratic-led states to file a new legal challenge against the Postal Service’s implementation plans.
The Postal Service’s proposal, finalized in August, would create a system to track each voter’s ballot using a unique barcode and cross-reference it against a database of eligible registered voters.
While some states worry they may need to reprint ballot envelopes to comply, Webber said the vast majority of California counties already use envelopes that meet the requirements.
The federal government does not currently maintain a comprehensive list of all eligible registered voters and would need states to submit voter information to a federal mail ballot portal that has not yet been built.
It appears unlikely that portal will be ready in time for the 2026 midterms. According to the office of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Postal Service employee who filed a whistleblower complaint said the rollout has been rushed, risky and disorganized because of an unrealistic timeline.
“In an attempt to meet impossible deadlines, the United States Postal Service has eliminated standard and necessary testing, creating a substantial risk of a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the system that could ‘derail the midterm elections,'” Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, wrote in a late-August letter to Postmaster General David Steiner.
In June, the postmaster general told a congressional committee that the Postal Service would withhold mail ballots in states that refuse to share basic voter information, including names, addresses and each ballot’s unique barcode.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s top elections official, has not said whether California would comply with the proposed voter information requirement.
“California election officials will continue to do everything in their power to ensure that every eligible California voter has the right to cast their ballot by mail and that vote is counted,” her office said.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Weber and five other Democratic secretaries of state for refusing to turn over unredacted voter files containing far more sensitive personal information than what the Postal Service rule requires. A federal judge in Southern California dismissed that case in January.
UNCERTAINTY COULD DRIVE MORE VOTERS TO CAST BALLOTS EARLY
In an unexpected twist, concerns about postal reliability may end up accomplishing something election officials and voting advocates have long struggled to achieve: getting more Californians to vote early.
That marks a shift from the run-up to June’s primary, when nervous Democrats urged voters to hold off casting ballots for governor until the last possible moment. Now, social media feeds are filled with posts urging people to vote early and use official drop boxes rather than rely on the mail.
“This whole thing could backfire,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. “What you’re seeing now on social media, in response to this legal drama and confusion, is a lot of people encouraging their friends to vote early — and that’s exactly the message we’ve been pushing all along.”
Early voting helps county election workers tabulate results faster on election night, allowing news organizations such as the Associated Press to call races sooner. Because mailed ballots take the longest to process, returning them several days ahead of the deadline gives election workers more time to remove ballots from envelopes and prepare them for counting before Election Day itself.
“Fortunately, we give voters a lot of options here, and that’s really going to benefit California,” Alexander said. “Other states don’t have as strong a system offering as many alternatives and pathways for voters to exercise their right to vote.”
Original source: CalMatters
