(The Center Square) – Republican Illinois attorney general candidate Bob Fioretti said the U.S. Postal Service should have authority to establish uniform requirements for handling mail-in ballots, while Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul has challenged the federal rule in court.
The dispute follows a Sept. 14 U.S. Supreme Court decision leaving in place a lower-court injunction that prevents the Postal Service from enforcing the rule for the 2026 election. The court did not definitively resolve whether the Postal Service has statutory authority to impose the requirements.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, wrote that there was “at least a fair prospect” the rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority. However, he said implementing the rule for the 2026 election would be improper because state and local election officials did not have sufficient time to reasonably implement it.
Fioretti said he viewed the Supreme Court's decision primarily as a matter of timing.
“I look at what the Supreme Court issued. I've read that minimal decision and what Justice Jackson and Justice Kavanaugh said. It was all a matter of timing,” Fioretti said.
The Postal Service rule would impose new requirements on states' mail-voting systems, including requirements involving ballot and return-envelope designs, voter information and a Postal Service tracking portal. Raoul and a coalition of 25 states sued the Postal Service in August, arguing the rule was unlawful and could interfere with states' administration of elections.
A federal district court subsequently issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rule, finding that states did not have enough time to overhaul their mail-ballot procedures before the election. The Supreme Court declined to lift that injunction.
Raoul said after the Supreme Court ruling that the decision was a victory for voters and the rule of law. He argued that states did not have time to completely change their mail-ballot procedures and described the Postal Service rule as unlawful.
“The courts have recognized that states do not have the time to completely overhaul their mail-in ballot procedures to comply with a Postal Service rule that is unlawful in the first place,” Raoul said.
Fioretti said he disagrees with Raoul's position and believes federal standards could provide greater consistency among states.
“Easily, they were trying to regulate across the board all the states, make it uniform in terms of their approach, so people understand and have faith in the system,” Fioretti said.
“Right now, every different state has a different approach and people get confused,” he said. “They're not sure on how to vote, how to use their mail-in, and what the impact can be.”
Fioretti said he believes the federal government has authority to regulate certain aspects of federal elections while states can maintain different approaches.
“The federal government has the authority to regulate how and when and where to vote and on federal elections,” Fioretti said. “If the states want to take a different approach, so be it on what they want to do.”
He also said the Postal Service could have more time to implement similar requirements after the 2026 election.
“If this would have been done in January of this year, I think it would have probably had a fuller hearing,” Fioretti said. “I think the outcome would have been clear that they would have cited and the regulations and then therefore side with what the postal authority was trying to implement.”
Raoul's office has maintained that the federal government does not have authority to impose the rule on states' election systems. In a statement, Raoul said the Constitution gives states, rather than the federal executive branch, the power to administer elections.
The Supreme Court's Sept. 14 decision leaves the broader question of the Postal Service's authority unresolved while preventing the rule from taking effect for the 2026 election.
If elected, Fioretti said he would challenge federal rules he believes improperly affect Illinois, while also seeking to work with federal officials to resolve disputes.
“As attorney general, I have an obligation to only deal with those that are affecting the state of Illinois,” Fioretti said. “And if there are some rules that are wrong, there are some regulations that are wrong, I will challenge them.”
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