Georgia election officials ask Supreme Court to delay new mail ballot rules

Georgia election officials joined together in a filing Wednesday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the new Postal Service ballot rules from taking effect for the November election.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger along with 15 other current and former Georgia election officials said it is too late to change how mail ballots are handled before the November midterm elections.

The Georgia officials are among 38 current and former election administrators from 10 states who signed the brief.

“Attempting to implement the rule now will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays and confusion for both voters and election officials,” they wrote in the Supreme Court filing.

The new rule would require officials to redesign ballot envelopes, add unique barcodes, create compatible voter lists and train workers to use a new federal ballot portal, which officials argued they lacked the proper amount of time to make these changes happen.

Georgia sends out its mail-in ballots on Sept. 15, and federal law requires states to send ballots to military members and other overseas voters by Sept. 19. 

The election officials did not take a position on whether the Postal Service has the legal authority to enforce President Trump’s executive order, but they asked the Supreme Court to leave the existing ruling that blocked the order in place until after the midterm elections.