What the Supreme Court’s mail-in voting ruling means for Georgia

Georgia’s rules for mail-in voting are not changing yet, despite a decision Monday by a divided U.S. Supreme Court that lifted one of two injunctions against the Trump administration’s plans to restrict the practice.

But the court’s unsigned emergency ruling injects new uncertainty about voting rules in Georgia a little more than two months before the midterms. The ruling keeps open the possibility of implementing parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order that grants the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service extraordinary control over who can vote by mail.

Applications for requesting absentee ballots are already open in Georgia and officials face looming deadlines for sending ballots. The secretary of state’s office said 45,467 applications have been accepted as of Tuesday morning.

Georgia officials and election law experts say it would be difficult to implement new restrictions in time for the midterms and that the legal fight over the mail ballot is far from over.

Bryan Tyson, an elections law expert hired by the state to defend its voting laws in court, is skeptical that such restrictions will be implemented for this year’s elections and that they would have a significant impact on Georgia’s elections even if carried out.

“Georgia already has a very robust process for addressing noncitizen registrations, for ensuring the security of ballots,” he said.

But Democrats warned not to rule out the administration moving forward for the midterms.

“We can’t say that this won’t impact voting by mail before the midterm election, but there will be a lot of legal steps before now and then that are probably going to take place in the next couple of weeks,” said Democratic state Rep. Saira Draper, one of her party’s voting rights experts.

Meanwhile, the candidates in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race sparred over Trump’s order.

“It’s shameful that the president, so fearful of defeat and accountability, is trying to make it harder for Georgia voters to vote,” incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff said.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins defended the executive order, saying there’s a need to ensure only Georgia citizens vote in the state’s elections.

“I think at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we have secure elections. Period,” he said.

The Supreme Court order did not rule on the merits of the administration’s plan but rather focused on whether such a challenge was brought prematurely.

“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,” the court’s majority wrote.

Trump’s March executive order directs DHS to compile state lists of voters it deems to be eligible to vote. Another part of it prevents the Postal Service from mailing ballots to voters not on citizenship lists created by federal agencies. Multiple lawsuits were swiftly brought seeking to block the order.

In June, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani ruled on one such case blocking key provisions of Trump’s order from going into effect for this year’s elections in 23 Democratic-led states that had challenged it. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court in an emergency appeal from the Trump administration.

A separate injunction from the same federal district court judge in August complicates matters. Talwani issued a preliminary injunction in another case against Trump’s order brought by voting rights groups. In that case, it prevented the Postal Service from implementing some parts of the executive order nationally.

The Supreme Court’s Monday ruling did not address that second injunction or the Postal Service’s finalized rule for enacting Trump’s order.

If the final rule that the Postal Service published Friday and plans to make official Wednesday is implemented, it’s nearly certain to face additional legal challenges. And the Postal Service’s rule said the agency would “not take actions to implement the rule specifically for the 2026 election” unless the administration obtains relief from both injunctions currently blocking the executive order.

Even without legal challenges, instituting it for the midterms would run into administrative challenges for election officials.

Adam Sparks, an Atlanta-based election lawyer, said if the second injunction is stayed and the Postal Service begins implementation of its rule, it would put much more stress on local election administrators as they try to figure out how to navigate the new mail-in ballot procedures.

“It creates a great deal of confusion, stress and chaos close to the midterm elections, if that happens,” he said.

In Georgia, mail-in ballot use surged during the 2020 election amid the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in Georgia. Democrats typically vote by mail in greater numbers than Republicans.