1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

Take action now to protect mail-in voting before the midterms. Trump's executive order to restrict absentee ballots is an unconstitutional power grab — and the Supreme Court's decision to pause the lower court ruling blocking it has injected, in Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's own words, "chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections." With absentee voting starting in some states just weeks away, the window to act is closing fast. The Constitution gives Congress and state legislatures the authority to set federal election rules — not the president. Judge Talwani's ruling made that clear. Trump's stated justification, stopping noncitizen voting, is a solution to a problem that research has found to be infinitesimally rare. Meanwhile, millions of eligible voters who rely on mail-in ballots face real uncertainty. Congress must step in — pass legislation that explicitly protects mail-in voting access and strips the executive branch of any authority to direct USPS to restrict ballot delivery to eligible voters.