The USPS Did *Not* Put the Mail-In Ballot Rule Into Effect!!

by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - attorney, law professor emeritus, and author of Federal law

Several social media accounts, influencers, and even major news outlets, are reporting that, despite court injunctions, the U.S. Post Office put into effect Trump’s mail-in ballot rule (the one where states would have to upload their mail-in ballot voter rolls to the post office or else the post office would not carry and deliver them).

THIS IS NOT ACCURATE! IT IS NOT TRUE!

Here’s what did happen:

They finalized the rule. That is completely different from them putting it into effect.

In fact, that is routine and what they are supposed to do! It does not mean it is in effect!

How a Proposed Rule Becomes a Rule:

Remember how after Trump’s executive order directed the USPS to create this rule? (That executive order has also been halted by the courts, by the way.)

Generally speaking, under the law (the Administrative Procedure Act) a federal agency that is promulgating a new rule must publish it on the Federal Register and allow for a period of public comment.

So the post office proposed the rule, and published it on the Federal Register. Remember that?

And remember how then the public had 30 days to comment on the proposed USPS rule?

Now, once the period for public comment has closed the agency can choose to either not go forward with the rule, or they can finalize the rule.

THIS is what the post office did: they finalized the rule.

Finalizing the rule is a routine administrative action, and means exactly nothing but that the rule is finalized.

THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS PUTTING IT INTO EFFECT!!

Here is the ACTUAL status of things:

- More than one court has issued an injunction against the rule, including Courts of Appeals

- The administration has now appealed those rulings to the Supreme Court

- The USPS has that finalized rule waiting in the wings ready to go in case the Supreme Court rules in their favour.

Please stop spreading misinformation.

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(The above was provided by me, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq., - attorney and law professor emeritus - all me, no AI, the buck stops here.)