The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway.

The decision allows states, including Hawaiʻi, to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years and have accounted for nearly a third of votes cast.

It represented a stark defeat for Trump on an issue he consistently has emphasized as vital to ensuring election integrity even though there is virtually no evidence of fraud with mail ballots.

Common Cause and the League of Women Voters were among several plaintiffs in the case, and their local representatives both said the ruling was a relief.

“The Supreme Court recognizes that there has been no evidence put forward by the federal administration to substantiate their claim to fraud,” said Camron Hurt, director of Common Cause Hawaiʻi, the local affiliate. “That means Americans should feel very comfortable using the mail-in system this election.”

A similar sentiment was expressed by Judith Mills Wong, president of League of Women Voters of Hawaiʻi.

“We are massively relieved because we have been waiting for the Supreme Court to give us a decision one way or another, and this is a way that allows us to feel safe to use vote-by-mail confidently this election,” she said. “Of course we will still have this fight for the next election, but at least for now we can feel confident that Hawaiʻi’s voting process is going to go forward as it should.”

Hawaiʻi moved to an all mail-in voting system in 2020. About 95% of Hawaiʻi voters voted by mail in the Aug. 8 primary.

In July, state legislators had expressed concern to the Hawaiʻi Election Office that the state did not have a back-up plan should Trump succeed in limiting voting by mail. Were such a plan necessary, lawmakers said they would find a way to make sure ballots were delivered and received.

No Way For States To Overhaul System In Time

On Monday, the Supreme Court majority did not detail its reasoning, as is typical for its emergency docket. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented from the brief order.

The Trump administration had asked the court, once again at the center of a roiling political controversy, to clear the way for restrictions before the pivotal November contests for control of Congress.

Alito wrote in his dissent that the Postal Service “has broad authority to regulate the mail” and likely does have the power to enforce Trump’s restrictions.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration if the issue comes back before the court at a later time.

Election officials have said there was simply no way to carry out a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterms. Indeed, Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin began sending mail ballots to voters over the past week while the new system was still not active.

The administration’s efforts had the potential to be especially disruptive in states like Washington and Oregon that send out ballots entirely by mail.

“Washington’s election workers are already hard at work preparing to carry out a safe, secure, and accurate election,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a written statement. “Now, that work continues without having to upend our election processes to meet unrealistic ballot mail requirements.”

In Colorado, where voters also cast ballots almost entirely by mail, Secretary of State Jena Griswold called the court’s ruling “a major victory for Colorado and American democracy. Mail ballots have been protected for Colorado voters.”

In Hawaiʻi, state Sen. Karl Rhoads said, “Bottom line, this is good news.”

“The only caveat is that Trump doesn’t take no for an answer,” added Rhoads, one of the lawmakers who promised support for the state’s election process. “I don’t know whether he will still try to force the Post Office to follow his orders anyway.”

Still, in a statement late Monday, Gov. Josh Green said the decision provides “important certainty” for the state as it prepares for the fall elections.

“Hawaiʻi voters deserve confidence that our elections will be administered fairly and securely, and that every eligible voter will have the opportunity to cast their ballot,” he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration plan would require states to adopt a uniform envelope style and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal. The Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots to states that didn’t comply.

A whistleblower report, though, said the postal system’s requirements could lead to millions of mail ballots never being sent, because the portal wasn’t properly built and a single bar code error could result in an entire batch of ballots being tossed out.

Democratic state officials and voting rights groups challenged the restrictions in court, arguing that the president has no constitutional authority to set election rules that would “virtually eliminate mail voting on the eve of a major election.”

Lower courts agreed and blocked Trump’s plan, including a preliminary injunction issued by a judge nominated by the president.

But the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that federal control of the Postal Service allows them to set rules for mail ballot handling and that compliance was possible.

The federal government won an early procedural decision at the Supreme Court, but the justices pointedly did not decide the legality of the plan.

Trump has long opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even though he often uses that method to cast his own ballot, including as recently as this year.

AP story by Lindsay Whitehurst.