Politics
Illinois attorney general joins suit against Postal Service over mail voting rules
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joins a multistate lawsuit challenging new U.S. Postal Service rules regulating mail in voting for federal elections.
By Peter Hancock · 2026-08-15T21:15:46.610Z
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Wednesday he has joined a multistate lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service challenging new rules that purport to give it authority to regulate mail in voting in federal elections.
The suit was filed two days after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court order https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/will supreme courts order on mail in ballots impact voting in illinois/ that had blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that seeks to bar anyone who is not listed on a federally approved database of U.S. citizens from casting a mail in ballot.
“We are asking the court for emergency relief because the administration is trying to undermine our citizens’ access to voting within weeks of the midterm elections,” Raoul said in a news release. “The U.S. Constitution plainly gives states — not the executive branch — the power to administer elections, and I am committed to swiftly fighting against this blatantly unconstitutional rule.”
The case was filed in federal court in Massachusetts, the same court that issued an injunction in July blocking the Trump administration from implementing the executive order. Plaintiffs include attorneys general from 23 states, including Illinois, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
On March 31, President Donald Trump issued an executive order https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential actions/2026/03/ensuring citizenship verification and integrity in federal elections/ entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” It calls on the Department of Homeland Security to create a “State Citizenship List” for each state identifying residents of that state who are confirmed to be U.S. citizens who will be 18 at the time of the upcoming election.
It also directs the U.S. Postal Service to develop administrative regulations that would prohibit mail carriers from transmitting mail ballots to or from anyone who is not included on those lists.
The lawsuit cites some of the president’s own social media posts as evidence that his executive order is part of a strategy to keep Republicans in power in Washington.
Those include a May 29, 2020, post on Twitter, which is now known as X, saying mail voting would “LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY.” It also cites an Aug. 18, 2025 post on Truth Social saying he aims to “get rid of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”
According to published news reports https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump casts mail ballot florida despite efforts restrict/story?id=135748506 , however, Trump himself cast a mail in ballot earlier this month in Florida’s primary elections.
The Postal Service finalized administrative rules to implement the executive order on Friday, Aug. 21, before the Supreme Court issued its order the following Monday. But it remains unclear how, or whether, the new rules will be implemented ahead of this year’s November elections.
A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections told Capitol News Illinois in an email Wednesday that it has not received any federal list of U.S. citizens residing in the state and has not been informed about whether one even exists.
Capitol News Illinois https://capitolnewsillinois.com/ is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
This story originally appeared on capitolnewsillinois.com https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/illinois attorney general joins suit against postal service over mail voting rules .