Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an adjacent case, a federal judge in Massachusetts lifted a nationwide injunction against a U.S. Postal Service rule about mail ballots ordered by the Trump administration. The decision is another temporary win for the administration, but muddies the water for Utah voters.
While the plaintiffs “have substantial arguments that might persuade the Supreme Court to reach a different result,” Judge Indira Talwani wrote she is compelled to lift the preliminary injunction in light of the high court’s earlier ruling. That decision paused a lower court’s ruling that blocked parts of President Donald Trump’s March executive order to limit voting by mail.
Utah’s top election official, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, previously said that the injunction Talwani lifted Wednesday had been safeguarding Utah’s widely used mail ballots as other states and voters fought Trump’s executive order. On social media, she posted days before the decision that it “will be an unmitigated disaster if the injunction is lifted.”
Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said he and his legal team are still analyzing Talwani’s ruling and determining what, if any, impact it will have on the future. The judge’s decision was a procedural measure and, like the Supreme Court’s decision, did not address the legality of the executive order.
“This is really a decision on process as opposed to the substance, and that's really what it comes down to,” Brown said.
Utah’s Attorney General wants to ensure “predictability in terms of the system” as the November midterm elections approach.
“Our election officials do a good job of making sure that that is the case and having secure elections,” he said. “Ultimately, I think that is the responsibility, and that's the aim. And so my job as the attorney general is to work with them to make sure that they follow the laws.”
KUER reached out to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office for comment but did not receive a response by publication.
The Postal Service rule in question makes several changes to vote-by-mail, like requiring ballots be sent only to people on state-specific lists of verified voters compiled by the USPS and changing the requirements for vote-by-mail envelopes.
Trump’s executive order still faces legal uncertainty. Democratic states almost immediately refiled their lawsuit, and the League of Women’s Voters in Massachusetts filed multiple motions to Judge Talwani aimed at blocking the president’s order ahead of the midterms. The courts have yet to rule on the core argument of whether the president has the authority to issue election rules, as Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution delegates power over elections to the states, a power Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson frequently defends on social media.
Since Utah switched to universal mail ballots in 2018, vote-by-mail has led to a significant turnout increase. A February report from the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank, found 80% of Utahns are confident in the state’s system.
Earlier this year, the American Postal Workers Union ran television ads in Utah encouraging people to use mail ballots ahead of the state’s June primary. The ads also ran in other states where voting by mail is a prevalent option.
Despite its popularity in Utah, state lawmakers have not been shy about making changes.
Lawmakers passed a significant makeover to Utah’s vote-by-mail system in 2025. Beginning in 2029, voters will no longer automatically receive a ballot by mail; instead, they must opt in every eight years. Those who do not opt in would have to vote in person. Voters will also be required to include the last four digits of a valid form of identification on their ballot, along with their signature.
Even before those Republican efforts to secure the state’s elections, there has been no credible evidence of widespread election fraud in Utah or elsewhere in the U.S.
To address some of those concerns, Lt. Gov. Henderson released the final version of an extensive audit of Utah’s voter rolls in May. It found that, among more than 2 million registered voters statewide, 27 were confirmed to be noncitizens. Her office subsequently removed those individuals from the voter rolls. The Department of Homeland Security has since acknowledged that the noncitizen numbers it pointed to on national voter rolls were inflated.
