‘Theatrical’ litigation: Republican AGs fight for Trump voting rules that their election officials say they can’t implement

By Tierney Sneed, Jeremy Herb, CNN

(CNN) — Republican attorneys general have shown their support for President Donald Trump’s election agenda by pressing courts to greenlight his proposed crackdown on mail voting.

But election officials in at least half of those states have said that they won’t be able to comply with proposed US Postal Service mandates in time, according to court filings and interviews with CNN.

Moreover, in those states, Republican-leaning counties may ultimately face steeper hurdles than Democratic ones, election officials of both parties say.

In several of the states, local officials have received no guidance from their state election chiefs on how they should prepare for the possibility that the new rules – which could require the replacement of thousands of ballot envelopes and a major reallocation of staff resources so that voter lists can be submitted to USPS – would suddenly be imposed.

In some of the states currently arguing in favor of the Trump ballot restrictions, local election officials have been told to operate as if the rules won’t be put into place this year.

“There’s a suggestion on the election administration side that no one really thinks this is going to be implemented,” said Derek Muller, an elections law professor at Notre Dame. “And a lot of the litigation is just theatrical at this point.”

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming days on whether to allow for the midterms a plan pushed by Trump for USPS to only deliver ballots for states that meet certain requirements. While the legal challengers — which include 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia — have put forward extensive evidence that the rules would cause extreme chaos and mass disenfranchisement if implemented this year, the administration is leaning on barebones assurances from Republican state officials that the panic is overblown.

The state-level effort to boost Trump in the legal fight is being led by Missouri and Texas, two attorneys general offices that have close ties to the administration. The administration has pointed to an August 29 court declaration by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, in which he vaguely asserted that he “believed” implementation of the rules was “possible” this year.

However, multiple Missouri election clerks said that if courts reanimated Trump’s plan, they would struggle to comply with its requirements. Envelopes used by several counties currently lack the unique bar codes for each voter that facilitate automated tracking – a feature that would be required, under Trump’s directives, for the USPS to deliver those ballots.

Even if those counties had the time and the money to replace their current envelopes, the one vendor in the Missouri who could print envelopes with those barcodes has indicated that it is not taking any new clients for the midterms, two Missouri election clerks told CNN.

“I don’t think our secretary of state or our president are really understanding … this hurts our Republican counties a lot more than it hurts our blue counties,” said Kurt Bahr, the elections clerk for St. Charles County, Missouri.

Several Democratic counties in Missouri already use vendors that allow them to comply with the Trump requirement that ballot envelopes have unique bar codes for each voter. Bahr believes he is the only Republican county official in the state who used that vendor as well.

Scott County clerk Allen Seabaugh said that, because he likely won’t be able to print envelopes in compliance with the rules, there was a possibility that he would physically drive absentee ballots to the 100 voters in his county who are on the permanent disability list for mail voting. But he would not be able to deliver ballots for people who have permission to vote absentee because they will be outside of the county during the election.

In response to CNN’s inquiries, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office said that she “supports the Trump Administration’s commonsense reforms to improve the integrity of mail voting,” while Hoskins acknowledged the time crunch in a statement Friday.

“Obviously, time is of the essence,” Hoskins said. “While implementation could cause some issues, we are willing to work to implement any part of the president’s plan that is feasible with the short time constraints.”

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement, “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The Missouri clerks association, joined by several GOP elections officials, laid out the challenges of following the demands of the USPS regulations in an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court this week. Among the signers were the Republican secretaries of state in South Dakota and Kansas – both states with attorneys general that are asking courts to impose Trump’s mail voting restrictions now.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office did not respond to CNN’s inquiry. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley provided a statement expressing his support for the Trump directives for how they “would prevent sending mail-in-ballots to individuals who are noncitizens or not registered to vote.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court will provide guidance to state election officials on implementation, and I have confidence in the ability of state election officials to implement the guidelines that the Supreme Court will provide,” Jackley said.

“These states have wanted to signal their support of the administration and that’s been the through line for the last few months on this,” Muller told CNN. “Whether that cashes out on how this upcoming election is administered is besides the point. They’re really just being supportive of the president – being along for the ride for whatever happens at this point.”

Hurdles for rural counties putting GOP voters at risk

Local election officials told CNN that, ironically, large, urban counties – often, the Democratic pockets in Republican states – would likely face fewer hurdles in following Trump’s rules, because their mail ballot programs are more sophisticated and already meet some of the USPS requirements.

In Florida, another state backing Trump in the legal challenges to his rules, election supervisors overseeing Palm Beach County and the Tampa area already meet those requirements, while local officials in deep red parts of the Florida panhandle told CNN they would need to scramble to reprint their envelopes.

“At this point it would be very difficult to replace them,” said Travis Hart, the elections supervisor of Lafayette County, Florida, adding that it was “not going to be good” if the USPS plan went into effect.

The offices of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Secretary of State Cord Byrd did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. Local election officials said they did not expect that Byrd’s office would advise them on what to do if the requirements were put into place by the Supreme Court. Ballots in Florida – where about a third of voters cast ballots by mail, the president among them – start going out on September 24.

“Everything is left up to us to make happen,” Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux told CNN.

In Texas, counties big and small have signed onto court filings telling judges that the rules would be impossible to implement this year. The offices of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also running for US Senate, and Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden did not respond to CNN’s inquiries.

Nebraska’s Democratic-leaning Lancaster County, which includes Lincoln, uses absentee ballot envelopes that already contain the unique bar codes. But Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said many of the state’s other counties — particularly the rural counties — would not be in compliance.

“There are 11 counties that are all vote by mail in Nebraska. I don’t know how they’d be able to comply with that provision,” Wiltgen said. “The vast majority of the smaller counties don’t have the resources.”

Tracy Overstreet, the election commissioner in Hall County in central Nebraska, said that the Nebraska secretary of state’s office has told counties to proceed with the election as planned, though the state’s attorney general is advocating for the new rule changes in the USPS litigation.

Overstreet told CNN that the changes under the rules are simply not possible to make when ballots are set to be mailed later this month.

“It’s not doable. Nebraska will not be in compliance, because we can’t change envelopes,” Overstreet said. “The mail house that we use here in Hall County in central Nebraska doesn’t even have that capability. Most of the state does not.”

A spokeswoman for Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen declined to comment. The office of Attorney General Mike Hilgers did not respond to requests for comment.

State officials in Indiana, another state backing Trump’s mandates, have not given local officials any guidance on how those mandates would be implemented, according to Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell. A spokesperson for Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales did not respond to CNN’s inquiry, nor did Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.

“It would not be possible to implement it,” Sweeney Bell, a Democrat, told CNN. “Right now, it’s a waste of time because there is so much more work that we have to do. We don’t have time for Donald Trump’s fantasies right now. And we will deal with it, but only if we absolutely have to.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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