2026-09-12T10:00:29.299Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/12/politics/republican-attorneys-general-trump-mail-voting
共和党总检察长们正通过敦促法院批准特朗普提出的邮寄选票打击计划，以示对总统唐纳德·特朗普选举议程的支持。
但据法庭文件和CNN采访，这些州中至少有一半的选举官员表示，他们无法及时遵守美国邮政总局（USPS）的新强制要求。
此外，两党选举官员均表示，在这些州内，倾向共和党的县最终可能比民主党县面临更严峻的障碍。
在其中多个州，地方官员尚未收到州选举主管就如何应对新规则可能突然实施的指导。新规则可能要求更换数千张选票信封，并大幅重新调配工作人员资源，以便将选民名单提交给美国邮政总局。
在当前支持特朗普选票限制措施的部分州中，地方选举官员已被告知，可按今年不会实施该规则的情况开展工作。
“选举管理方面有人认为，没人真的认为这项规则会落地，”圣母大学选举法教授德里克·穆勒表示，“目前来看，很多诉讼不过是作秀。”
预计最高法院将在未来几天内做出裁决，决定是否允许特朗普推动的美国邮政总局计划在中期选举期间生效——该计划要求仅向符合特定条件的州递送选票。包括23个民主党领导的州和哥伦比亚特区在内的法律挑战者，已提交大量证据表明，若今年实施该规则，将引发极端混乱和大规模剥夺选民资格。而特朗普政府仅依靠共和党州官员给出的极简保证，称恐慌言过其实。
这场在法律战中为特朗普造势的州级行动，由与特朗普政府关系密切的密苏里州和德克萨斯州总检察长办公室牵头。政府援引了密苏里州务卿丹尼·霍斯金斯8月29日提交的法庭声明，这位共和党官员在声明中含糊地表示，他“相信”今年有“可能”实施该规则。
然而，多名密苏里州选举书记员表示，如果法院重启特朗普的计划，他们将难以遵守相关要求。目前密苏里州多个县使用的信封，缺少用于自动追踪的选民专属条形码——而根据特朗普的指示，美国邮政总局递送选票需具备该功能。
两名密苏里州选举书记员告诉CNN，即便这些县有时间和资金更换现有信封，但密苏里州唯一能印制带该条形码信封的供应商已表示，不会在中期选举前承接新客户。
“我认为我们的州务卿和总统都没真正理解……这对我们共和党县受到的伤害远比对蓝领县严重得多，”密苏里州圣查尔斯县选举书记员库尔特·巴尔说道。
密苏里州的几个民主党县已经使用能够满足特朗普要求的供应商，该要求明确选票信封需带有每位选民的专属条形码。巴尔认为自己是该州唯一一家使用该供应商的共和党县官员。
斯科特县书记员艾伦·西伯表示，由于可能无法印制符合规则的信封，他有可能亲自驾车将缺席选票亲手交给本郡100名永久残疾邮寄选民。但他无法为那些因选举期间不在本郡而获准缺席投票的选民递送选票。
针对CNN的问询，密苏里州总检察长凯瑟琳·哈纳韦的办公室表示，她“支持特朗普政府为提高邮寄投票完整性提出的务实改革。而霍斯金斯在周五的一份声明中承认了当前的时间紧迫问题。
“显然，时间至关重要，”霍斯金斯说，“尽管实施可能会带来一些问题，但我们愿意努力落实总统计划中在短时间内可行的部分。”
密苏里州书记员协会联合多名共和党选举官员在本周提交给最高法院的法庭之友意见书中，阐述了遵守美国邮政总局监管要求面临的挑战。签署该文件的包括南达科他州和堪萨斯州的共和党州务卿——这两个州的总检察长均要求法院立即实施特朗普的邮寄投票限制措施。
堪萨斯州总检察长克里斯·科巴赫的办公室未回应CNN的问询。南达科他州总检察长马蒂·杰克利发表声明称，他支持特朗普的相关指令，认为该指令“将防止将邮寄选票寄送给非公民或未登记投票的个人”。
“美国最高法院将为州选举官员提供实施指导，我相信州选举官员有能力落实最高法院将提供的指导方针，”杰克利说道。
“这些州一直想表达对本届政府的支持，这也是过去几个月里的一贯做法，”穆勒告诉CNN，“至于这最终是否会影响本次中期选举的管理，其实并不重要。他们只是在支持总统——无论最终结果如何，都打算陪总统走一程。”
地方选举官员告诉CNN，具有讽刺意味的是，大型城市县——通常是共和党州内的民主党票仓——在遵守特朗普规则方面可能面临的障碍更少，因为它们的邮寄选票项目更成熟，已经满足了美国邮政总局的部分要求。
在另一个在针对特朗普规则的法律挑战中支持特朗普的佛罗里达州，棕榈滩县和坦帕地区的选举主管已经符合相关要求，而佛罗里达狭长地带深红地区的地方官员告诉CNN，他们需要紧急重新印制选票信封。
“现在要更换它们非常困难，”佛罗里达州拉斐特县选举主管特拉维斯·哈特说道，还补充说，如果美国邮政总局的计划生效，“情况不会太好。”
佛罗里达州总检察长詹姆斯·乌特迈耶和州务卿科德·伯德的办公室未回应CNN的问询。地方选举官员表示，他们预计伯德的办公室不会就如果最高法院强制实施相关要求时该如何应对提供建议。佛罗里达州约三分之一的选民通过邮寄方式投票，总统也是其中之一，选票将于9月24日开始寄出。
“所有事情都要靠我们自己推进，”奥卡卢萨县选举主管保罗·勒克斯告诉CNN。
在德克萨斯州，大大小小的县都已在法庭文件中告知法官，今年不可能实施这些规则。德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿（同时也在竞选联邦参议员）和州务卿罗伯特·豪登的办公室未回应CNN的问询。
内布拉斯加州倾向民主党的兰开斯特县（包括林肯市）使用的缺席选票信封已经带有专属条形码。但兰开斯特县选举专员托德·威尔特根表示，该州其他许多县——尤其是农村县——将无法遵守规定。
“内布拉斯加州共有11个县全都是邮寄投票，我不知道它们怎么才能遵守这项条款，”威尔特根说，“绝大多数小型县都没有相关资源。”
内布拉斯加州中部霍尔县选举专员特蕾西·奥弗斯特里特表示，内布拉斯加州务卿办公室已告知各县按原计划推进选举，尽管该州总检察长在美国邮政总局的诉讼中倡导新的规则变更。
奥弗斯特里特告诉CNN，鉴于选票将于本月晚些时候寄出，根据规则进行的修改根本不可能实现。
“这行不通。内布拉斯加州将无法遵守规定，因为我们无法更换信封，”奥弗斯特里特说，“我们在中部内布拉斯加州使用的印刷厂甚至都没有这项能力。该州大多数地区都没有。
内布拉斯加州务卿罗伯特·埃夫南的发言人拒绝置评。州总检察长迈克·希格斯的办公室未回应置评请求。
印第安纳州也是支持特朗普授权措施的另一个州，马里恩县书记员凯特·斯威尼·贝尔表示，州官员尚未就如何落实这些授权措施，并未向地方官员提供任何指导。印第安纳州务卿迭戈·莫拉莱斯的发言人未回应CNN的问询，州总检察长托德·罗基塔也同样未回应。
“不可能落实这项规则，”民主党人斯威尼·贝尔告诉CNN，“现在这纯粹是浪费时间，因为我们还有大量工作要做。我们现在没时间管唐纳德·特朗普的不切实际的想法。只有在万不得已的情况下，我们才会处理这件事。”
‘Theatrical’ litigation: Republican AGs fight for Trump voting rules that their election officials say they can’t implement
2026-09-12T10:00:29.299Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/12/politics/republican-attorneys-general-trump-mail-voting
Republican attorneys general have shown their support for President Donald Trump’s election agenda by pressing courts to greenlight his proposed crackdown on mail voting.
But election officials in at least half of those states have said that they won’t be able to comply with proposed US Postal Service mandates in time, according to court filings and interviews with CNN.
Moreover, in those states, Republican-leaning counties may ultimately face steeper hurdles than Democratic ones, election officials of both parties say.
In several of the states, local officials have received no guidance from their state election chiefs on how they should prepare for the possibility that the new rules – which could require the replacement of thousands of ballot envelopes and a major reallocation of staff resources so that voter lists can be submitted to USPS – would suddenly be imposed.
In some of the states currently arguing in favor of the Trump ballot restrictions, local election officials have been told to operate as if the rules won’t be put into place this year.
“There’s a suggestion on the election administration side that no one really thinks this is going to be implemented,” said Derek Muller, an elections law professor at Notre Dame. “And a lot of the litigation is just theatrical at this point.”
The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming days on whether to allow for the midterms a plan pushed by Trump for USPS to only deliver ballots for states that meet certain requirements. While the legal challengers — which include 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia — have put forward extensive evidence that the rules would cause extreme chaos and mass disenfranchisement if implemented this year, the administration is leaning on barebones assurances from Republican state officials that the panic is overblown.
The state-level effort to boost Trump in the legal fight is being led by Missouri and Texas, two attorneys general offices that have close ties to the administration. The administration has pointed to an August 29 court declaration by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, in which he vaguely asserted that he “believed” implementation of the rules was “possible” this year.
However, multiple Missouri election clerks said that if courts reanimated Trump’s plan, they would struggle to comply with its requirements. Envelopes used by several counties currently lack the unique bar codes for each voter that facilitate automated tracking – a feature that would be required, under Trump’s directives, for the USPS to deliver those ballots.
Even if those counties had the time and the money to replace their current envelopes, the one vendor in the Missouri who could print envelopes with those barcodes has indicated that it is not taking any new clients for the midterms, two Missouri election clerks told CNN.
“I don’t think our secretary of state or our president are really understanding … this hurts our Republican counties a lot more than it hurts our blue counties,” said Kurt Bahr, the elections clerk for St. Charles County, Missouri.
Several Democratic counties in Missouri already use vendors that allow them to comply with the Trump requirement that ballot envelopes have unique bar codes for each voter. Bahr believes he is the only Republican county official in the state who used that vendor as well.
Scott County clerk Allen Seabaugh said that, because he likely won’t be able to print envelopes in compliance with the rules, there was a possibility that he would physically drive absentee ballots to the 100 voters in his county who are on the permanent disability list for mail voting. But he would not be able to deliver ballots for people who have permission to vote absentee because they will be outside of the county during the election.
In response to CNN’s inquiries, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office said that she “supports the Trump Administration’s commonsense reforms to improve the integrity of mail voting,”while Hoskins acknowledged the current time crunch in a statement Friday.
“Obviously, time is of the essence,” Hoskins said. “While implementation could cause some issues, we are willing to work to implement any part of the president’s plan that is feasible with the short time constraints.”
The Missouri clerks association, joined by several GOP elections officials, laid out the challenges of following the demands of the USPS regulations in an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court this week. Among the signers were the Republican secretaries of state in South Dakota and Kansas – both states with attorneys general that are asking courts to impose Trump’s mail voting restrictions now.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office did not respond to CNN’s inquiry. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley provided a statement expressing his support for the Trump directives for how they “would prevent sending mail-in-ballots to individuals who are noncitizens or not registered to vote.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court will provide guidance to state election officials on implementation, and I have confidence in the ability of state election officials to implement the guidelines that the Supreme Court will provide,” Jackley said.
“These states have wanted to signal their support of the administration and that’s been the through line for the last few months on this,” Muller told CNN. “Whether that cashes out on how this upcoming election is administered is besides the point. They’re really just being supportive of the president – being along for the ride for whatever happens at this point.”
Local election officials told CNN that, ironically, large, urban counties – often, the Democratic pockets in Republican states – would likely face fewer hurdles in following Trump’s rules, because their mail ballot programs are more sophisticated and already meet some of the USPS requirements.
In Florida, another state backing Trump in the legal challenges to his rules, election supervisors overseeing Palm Beach County and the Tampa area already meet those requirements, while local officials in deep red parts of the Florida panhandle told CNN they would need to scramble to reprint their envelopes.
“At this point it would be very difficult to replace them,” said Travis Hart, the elections supervisor of Lafayette County, Florida, adding that it was “not going to be good” if the USPS plan went into effect.
The offices of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Secretary of State Cord Byrd did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. Local election officials said they did not expect that Byrd’s office would advise them on what to do if the requirements were put into place by the Supreme Court. Ballots in Florida – where about a third of voters cast ballots by mail, the president among them – start going out on September 24.
“Everything is left up to us to make happen,” Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux told CNN.
In Texas, counties big and small have signed onto court filings telling judges that the rules would be impossible to implement this year. The offices of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also running for US Senate, and Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden did not respond to CNN’s inquiries.
Nebraska’s Democratic-leaning Lancaster County, which includes Lincoln, uses absentee ballot envelopes that already contain the unique bar codes. But Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said many of the state’s other counties — particularly the rural counties — would not be in compliance.
“There are 11 counties that are all vote by mail in Nebraska. I don’t know how they’d be able to comply with that provision,” Wiltgen said. “The vast majority of the smaller counties don’t have the resources.”
Tracy Overstreet, the election commissioner in Hall County in central Nebraska, said that the Nebraska secretary of state’s office has told counties to proceed with the election as planned, though the state’s attorney general is advocating for the new rule changes in the USPS litigation.
Overstreet told CNN that the changes under the rules are simply not possible to make when ballots are set to be mailed later this month.
“It’s not doable. Nebraska will not be in compliance, because we can’t change envelopes,” Overstreet said. “The mail house that we use here in Hall County in central Nebraska doesn’t even have that capability. Most of the state does not.”
A spokeswoman for Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen declined to comment. The office of Attorney General Mike Hilgers did not respond to requests for comment.
State officials in Indiana, another state backing Trump’s mandates, have not given local officials any guidance on how those mandates would be implemented, according to Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell. A spokesperson for Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales did not respond to CNN’s inquiry, nor did Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.
“It would not be possible to implement it,” Sweeney Bell, a Democrat, told CNN. “Right now, it’s a waste of time because there is so much more work that we have to do. We don’t have time for Donald Trump’s fantasies right now. And we will deal with it, but only if we absolutely have to.”
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