With Trump’s plans blocked, states work to restore trust in mail voting

Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026 | 2 a.m. The Supreme Court’s decision to block President Donald Trump’s effort to limit mail‑voting has led state election officials to set aside their contingency plans and focus on rebuilding public confidence in voting by mail. Trump’s repeated false claims about mail ballots, combined with months of legal wrangling over whether he could curb the practice through the Postal Service, have left many voters uncertain. Now that the legal question is resolved, election officials at the state and local levels are shifting their outreach to assure voters that they can trust the security of mail voting without federal restrictions. Francisco Aguilar, Nevada’s secretary of state and a Democrat, described the preparation process: “We’ve really been moving each play to fig retired the antithetic scenarios for the outcomes of the decision,” said Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat who is Nevada’s caput of state. “And 1 of them was, Hey, if we are successful a presumption wherever we get a favorable ruling from the courts, what are we going to bash to amended voters and to physique that assurance that their ballot is going to get counted?” For Nevada, this means launching a broad voter‑education campaign that will include television advertisements, digital ads and text messages to residents. Trump has spent years sowing doubt about the integrity of American elections, promoting false narratives about election results and alleging fraud despite numerous court rejections of lawsuits filed by him and his allies after the 2020 vote. He frequently criticizes mail voting even though he has used the method himself. This year he has intensified efforts to influence election administration, disregarding the constitutional principle that assigns election oversight to the states. By mobilizing multiple federal agencies, he has heightened confusion and unease among voters nationwide. The president’s ongoing attacks have pushed state and local election officials into more prominent public roles. Jena Griswold, Colorado’s secretary of state and a Democrat, remarked: “This evidently is not the archetypal clip that Trump pushes retired much lies astir ballot by mail,” said Jena Griswold, Colorado’s caput of state. “Our connection adjacent during each this backmost and distant with this litigation is that everything was proceeding arsenic normal.” Griswold added that she had recently been asked whether returning ballots by mail was safe. “And my reply is, You tin instrumentality your ballot nevertheless you want,” she said. She highlighted Colorado’s program that lets voters follow their mail ballot “as if it were an Amazon package,” a tool designed to sustain confidence in mail voting. This month North Carolina became the first state to mail out ballots for the midterm elections, even as the Trump administration sought to restrict the practice.