🗳 The Supreme Court & your ballot

Supreme Court Rules Trump Can Restrict Mail-In Voting

On Monday, The Supreme Court ruled the states, including Washington, that sued over President Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting did not have the legal right to challenge the order. The ruling did not directly address the constitutionality of the executive order. However, as the November midterm elections approach, it remains unclear how the executive order will be implemented, especially with additional court challenges ongoing. [AXIOS Seattle, LawDork]

• How will this impact Washington voters? For now, there are no immediate changes as the legal battles are far from settled. But all Washington counties have voted by mail since 2011. Four in five Cascadians (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington) rely on receiving their ballots by mail, including in rural and urban areas. In terms of how voters return their ballots, for the November 2024 general election, 33 percent of Washington voters returned their ballots by mail, 67 percent by drop box, and a marginal number by email or fax. [Sightline Institute]
• What was the executive order? Trump’s March executive order calls on his administration to create lists of eligible voters and orders the U.S. Postal Service only to deliver mail ballots to people on the lists. Trump then ordered the Postal Service not to mail ballots from any state that does not comply with his order. The latest ruling clears the way for the Department of Homeland Security to compile a federal citizenship list and share it with states, allows the Attorney General to prioritize prosecution of state officials who may issue ballots to ineligible voters, and green-lights U.S. Postal Service (USPS) rulemaking for state mail ballot designs. [Seattle Times, ABC News]
• Is mail-in voting uniquely vulnerable to fraud? Short answer: no. Mail-in voting is just as free from fraud as other methods of voting. In other words, there’s virtually none. Voting by mail increases turnout and saves election administrators money. Neither Democrats nor Republicans get a particular boost from expanding access to mail ballots. And nationwide, close to one-third of American voters vote from home. [Sightline Institute]

🚨 U.S. set for largest mass visa revocation in history: The Trump administration says it will revoke the business and tourism visas (B1 and B2 visas) of up to 200,000 people who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States in the last ten years. Unless challenged or revised, this would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history. [AP]

🔎 When will WA pass the digital privacy model it created? In 2019, then-Sen. Reuven Carlyle introduced the Washington State Privacy Act. It mandated that companies get the consent of consumers before collecting sensitive personal data, and provided consumers with the right to correct and delete information in those databases. It became a blueprint adopted across the country, except in Washington. Now, Attorney General Nick Brown is calling for a similar law to be passed. [GeekWire]

📔 UW proposes overhaul to Student Conduct Code: UW faculty told The Daily they learned the scope of the changes with just days left to weigh in. Under the new rules, staff and unnamed outside contractors would hold disciplinary hearings, and panels would no longer be required to have a faculty chair. These changes arrive in the wake of the high-profile disciplinary hearings for the students who occupied the IEB. [The Daily]