Pritzker Blasts Supreme Court Ruling On Trump's Mail-In Voting Order

CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker sharply criticized the U.S. Supreme Court after the justices allowed portions of President Donald Trump's executive order targeting mail-in voting to move forward ahead of the November midterm elections.

"The Supreme Court's decision allowing Donald Trump and the U.S. Postal Service to move forward with this unprecedented attempt to interfere in our elections is deeply troubling," Pritzker said in a statement Tuesday.

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"We are weeks away from voting in the midterms and the President is trying to put fear in Americans about the security of our elections, rewrite the rules, and put the federal government between voters and their ballots," he said.

What The Supreme Court Ruled

The Supreme Court ruling stems from Trump's March 31 executive order, which calls for significant federal changes to the way mail and absentee ballots are distributed for federal elections.

Among other provisions, the order directs federal agencies to compile state-specific lists of confirmed U.S. citizens and directs the U.S. Postal Service to establish new requirements for mail ballots, including official election-mail markings and unique barcodes. It also calls for USPS to transmit mail or absentee ballots only to voters appearing on state-specific participation lists.

In its Aug. 24 ruling, the Supreme Court described the order as requiring what it called a "fundamental overhaul" of states' existing mail-ballot systems, shifting significant control over the process to the federal government.

The court's action allows portions of the order to proceed while the legal dispute continues. Importantly, the ruling does not amount to a final determination that every part of Trump's order is lawful.

Trump Says Order Is About Election Integrity

Trump's administration has framed the executive order as an election-integrity measure designed to verify citizenship and secure the use of mail ballots in federal elections.

The White House said the changes are intended to ensure that only eligible voters receive absentee or mail ballots and to create a more trackable system for ballot mail through USPS.

The order directs the Postal Service to undertake rulemaking on the new mail-ballot procedures and requires federal agencies to coordinate on implementing the citizenship-list system.

Pritzker Has Warned About Election Interference

Pritzker has been sounding alarms about the November election for months. In April, he warned that federal immigration agents could be deployed near polling places and urged voters not to be intimidated.

"If we don't have a fair election in November, we won't have any more elections," Pritzker said at the time. "They're taking away our voting rights. They're taking away your voting rights and we have to fight like hell to preserve those rights."

That earlier warning came amid an increasingly heated gubernatorial campaign against Republican Darren Bailey, who has blamed Pritzker for creating conditions that prompted federal immigration enforcement in Illinois. Bailey has argued that state and local authorities could have handled immigration enforcement differently had Pritzker not “gotten in the way and hindered that process.”

Pritzker's response to the Supreme Court ruling echoed that same theme Tuesday.

"Illinois will continue to administer free and fair elections in our state while fighting every attack on voters' rights," Pritzker said.

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