Federal vote-by-mail challenges unlikely to affect Santa Clara County

As the legal battle over federal mail-in ballot restrictions continues to progress through the courts, Santa Clara County’s top election official is reassuring voters — the November elections will proceed as normal.

A series of back-to-back legal rulings set off by a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week ended with a judge placing a temporary block on President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to create a federal registry for mail-in voters. While election experts said there are slim odds that the order will take effect in time to change the rules for the upcoming November midterms, they warn the whipsaw legal rulings could sow enough confusion among voters that some may decide to simply sit this cycle out.

With ballots set to go out to Santa Clara County’s 1 million registered voters in just over a month, Registrar of Voters Matt Moreles said the county has no plans to change its voting processes.

“Voting by mail is open and it’s business as usual here in Santa Clara County,” Moreles told San José Spotlight.

County voters have come to rely on mail-in voting, with more than 90% choosing the method rather than voting in person at a polling place, Moreles said.

At the center of the legal fray is a March executive order tasking the Department of Homeland Security with creating a list of eligible voters in each state. The order would block the U.S. Postal Service from sending mail-in ballots to anyone who does not appear on the list.

Trump’s order has faced several lawsuits from Democratic state officials, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as well as voting rights groups.

The Supreme Court issued a procedural ruling on Aug. 25 that lifted a lower court’s decision blocking the implementation of the order, though the ruling did not weigh in on the underlying merits of the case. Opponents of the order quickly refiled their lawsuits to comply with the high court’s ruling, and two days later, another federal judge once again issued a temporary block.

The Trump administration is appealing the latest ruling, and the legal fight could soon go back before the Supreme Court. Moreles said his office is continuing to monitor the legal proceedings.

“It is a very complex situation,” he said.

Voting rights advocates said they are already seeing warning signs that the complexity is leading some voters to unnecessarily doubt that mail-in ballots will be available ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3.

“We were fielding calls and emails from voters starting before the June primary asking if Trump has taken away mail voting and asking if they were going to get a mail ballot as they usually do,” Brittany Stonesifer, who oversees voting rights programs for good governance group California Common Cause, told San José Spotlight.

Stonesifer warns that such doubts, coupled with fears over the potential for disruptions on Election Day driven by baseless claims of voter fraud, could depress turnout.

“Another concern that folks have had is about federal interference at the polls, or even from private overzealous actors interfering with voters at the polls,” she said. “Some voters who are already underrepresented may feel targeted and not want to go to vote in person. But then, if they think that vote-by-mail isn’t an option, they may just sit out and be disenfranchised.”

Administration officials contend the executive order seeks to enact common sense “election integrity measures” aimed at combating voter fraud. Researchers have consistently found that such fraud is extremely rare.

Meanwhile, opponents have argued the president does not have the authority to interfere with election rules, which are typically set by states. They have also warned that if the order is allowed to proceed before the November midterms, the rush to enact it would create election chaos, especially in jurisdictions where mail-in balloting is most common, which typically lean Democratic.

Trump, who last year pledged to “lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots,” has also backed legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

All registered California voters receive a mail-in ballot, a procedure that has been in place since the passage of landmark election reforms in 2016. Nationwide, about one in three voters used mail-in ballots in the 2024 presidential election.

County election officials are encouraging voters to cast their mail-in ballots at a secure ballot drop box or vote center rather than through the mail. Those who do mail their votes in should do so at least a week before Election Day. Voting rights groups warn that changes to USPS mail handling procedures now mean that some ballots that arrive just before the Election Day cut off could be postmarked with later dates, making them invalid.

As Election Day approaches, Moreles said his office will be seeking to make sure that voters know that their mail-in ballots are still coming.

“Nothing has changed,” he said. “You can still have the same high level of confidence in this process, and we’re still going to deliver the same high level of service.”

Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.