Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Tuesday that a preliminary U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a mail-in balloting case has not affected voting processes in Maine because the larger legal dispute remains unresolved.
“The Supreme Court ruling changed nothing for the states because there is still a nationwide injunction in place in a separate lawsuit,” Bellows said. “So for now, it is business as usual.”
In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that, among other things, would give the U.S. Postal Service a role in deciding which voters can receive mail-in ballots. Under the order, postal officials would mail ballots in specially designed or marked envelopes only to individuals who have been predetermined by the Department of Homeland Security to be U.S. citizens of legal voting age.
In June, a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the Trump administration from implementing the order before the November elections in response to a lawsuit filed by 23 states — including Maine — plus the District of Columbia. But the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned that decision Monday, ruling that the judge’s action was premature because, at the time, the Postal Service had not yet drafted the rules to implement the order.
The justices did not rule on the arguments at the crux of the case, however. Legal action on those larger issues — including arguments over the Constitution’s language allowing states to run their own elections — is still pending.
“The court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful,” reads the ruling from the six justices. “On that score, time will tell. But the order itself does not harm the states.”
Bellows, a Democrat who has been extremely critical of Trump’s “election integrity” efforts, told reporters Tuesday that Maine still plans to use the same process — and envelopes — for absentee voting.
“It’s important to realize that nothing has changed when it comes to the fundamental voting rights of every American in this country,” Bellows said. “You can still vote by mail. Even though Trump and the U.S. Postal Service seem to be doing their best to try to stop that, they have not yet been successful.”
Maine allows any voter to cast absentee ballots, either by mailing them back to their municipal clerks, dropping off ballots in designated boxes or casting them in-person before Election Day. In 2024, more than 40% of voters in Maine cast absentee ballots.
The Postal Service finalized its rules for implementing the executive order late last week, just days before the Supreme Court’s ruling. Democratic-led states and interest groups are expected to ask the courts to block those rules as well, however.
Maine is involved in multiple other lawsuits challenging the Trump administration on voting processes and federal access to voter data.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.