TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas - Travis County has joined a federal lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration's proposed mail-in ballot rule.
The lawsuit was filed by the Campaign Legal Center and the Democracy Defenders Fund.
Also included in the lawsuit are the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Arizona Students' Association, the Secure Families Initiative and the city of Madison, Wisconsin.
What they're saying:
The county clerk's office announced the news in a release, saying that County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado went forward with this as "the rule threatens to disrupt election operations and create confusion for voters ahead of the November midterm elections."
"Our elections are administered by local officials who understand the voters and communities we serve. We should not be forced to navigate last-minute federal rules that create confusion, delay ballots, and make it harder for eligible voters to participate," said Limon-Mercado. "This rule creates unnecessary confusion and puts the burden on voters and local election officials. Travis County will continue doing everything we can to protect voters’ ability to participate in our elections."
Dig deeper:
The November 3 general election is less than 70 days away, with less than three weeks to go before the earliest mail-in ballots are set to be sent out.
The clerk's office says that with this proposed USPS rule, there will be "significant operational costs and legal challenges".
The office also says that this new rule would threaten the ability of many voters, including seniors, disabled people, and those who cannot vote in person, to even be able to cast a ballot at all.
In addition to this proposed rule change, election administrators in Texas are currently dealing with issues with the TEAM 2.0 election system. The clerk's office says many of those issues also directly impact mail-in ballots.
The Texas Tribune reported last year that issues with the system caused tens of thousands of voter registration applications to go unprocessed for months.
In Texas, if your application was received on time but not processed by the time you cast your vote, you can still cast a provisional ballot, but there is a chance it won't be counted.
Trump’s executive order on mail-in ballots
The backstory:
The order, signed by Trump back in March, called on his administration to create lists of eligible voters and ordered the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists.
For years the president has opposed mail-in voting, claiming – without evidence – that it contributes to widespread election fraud.
He’s also repeatedly pressed for the passage of legislation that requires proof of citizenship to vote. Noncitizen voting has been shown to be rare, and is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.
By the numbers:
Using mail ballots has become increasingly popular with voters of both parties, with about 30% of all ballots cast that way during the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data.
The process is also secure. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
What's more, Trump himself voted by mail in Florida's 2026 special election.
The other side:
Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the order. They argued that the Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections, and Trump’s changes could lead to chaos and partisan abuse.
A judge in Massachusetts blocked the plan for the midterm elections in those states. An appeals court upheld her decision. She later granted a second order blocking it nationwide.
Supreme Court steps in
However, on Monday, Aug. 24, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the order to move forward, saying that the states who sued did not have the legal right to challenge it.
The court issued an order on its "shadow docket" pausing that lower appeals court's order.
The Court did say that its decision was not based on whether Trump's order was lawful, but instead on whether the lower courts acted too quickly in blocking it, says the DDF.
Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, who is part of the DDF and CLC lawsuit, says that "the Supreme Court ruled on timing, not the law."
What the Supreme Court's mail-in ballot decision could mean
The Supreme Court ruling created a path for President Donald Trump’s restrictions on mail-in voting, introducing uncertainty for millions of voters accustomed to casting their ballots by mail.
The Source: Information in this report comes from an Aug 26 release from the Travis County Clerk's Office and previous reporting by FOX Television Stations