The Trump administration has petitioned the US Supreme Court to approve an executive order granting the US Postal Service extensive new powers to regulate mail-in ballots, bypassing the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals before it could rule on the matter. The move comes at a highly sensitive moment, just days before some states begin mailing out ballots for the midterms, and follows a whistleblower report alleging significant problems with the technical system underpinning the plan.

At the centre of the dispute is a new USPS portal designed to cross-check mail-in ballots against a nationwide database of registered voters, alongside a "zero-percent failure" policy that critics warn could see large numbers of ballots rejected with no right of appeal. The administration has characterised the changes as merely "modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements" that do not interfere with states' control of elections, but officials admitted in court less than a week earlier that they were unsure whether the system was even operational. North Carolina is due to begin sending ballots within hours, with Alabama following next week.