‘Don’t freak out’: WA Secretary of State expects new injunction ‘very soon’ after Supreme Court mail-in voting ruling

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs told KIRO Newsradio Monday that he expects a new injunction to be filed “very soon” after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted one of two court orders blocking President Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting.

The court ruled that the 23 states that sued, including Washington, filed their challenge too early because the federal rule had not yet taken effect, according to SCOTUSblog. Hobbs noted that a second injunction, from a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters, still blocks the changes for November’s elections, though he said he expects that one to be lifted as well.

Hobbs added that the ruling was not a surprise.

“We knew that this was a strong possibility that the injunction would be lifted,” he said.

Hobbs says complying with mail-in voting order before October would be nearly impossible

Hobbs explained now that a federal rule has formally taken effect, a new legal challenge can be filed on firmer ground.

“The Supreme Court said, ‘Look, you can’t have an injunction on something that doesn’t really exist,'” Hobbs said. “And now that we have a rule, there will be a filing of another lawsuit. And remember, the court did not talk about the merits of the case at all. All it did was talk about the timing.”

If the executive order is ultimately allowed to stand, Hobbs said the practical challenges for Washington would be enormous. The order would require states to provide voter lists to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), use federally approved ballot return envelopes with unique tracking barcodes, and allow USPS to refuse to carry ballots that don’t appear on federal citizenship lists, according to SCOTUSblog.

Hobbs said counties have already printed their ballot return envelopes, and replacing them with a new federally approved design before the Oct. 16 deadline would be nearly impossible.

“We would have to destroy all the current ones that the counties have printed and print out new ones, and do that before Oct. 16, which I don’t know how that’s going to happen,” Hobbs said.

If forced to hand over voter data, Hobbs said he would provide only publicly available information, not the private data the Department of Justice has sought.

“I’m not going to give them the private information like the DOJ wants,” he said.

Hobbs raises concerns about domestic violence victims

Hobbs also flagged a specific vulnerability in the federal plan: Washington’s address confidentiality program, which protects victims of domestic violence by shielding their addresses from public records.

“What are you going to do with that? Because we don’t provide that,” Hobbs said. “That is kind of done behind the scenes, and we work it out with our counties. Are you just not going to deliver those as well? So there’s a lot of missing information that we need from the U.S. Postal Service.”

Hobbs tells voters: ‘Don’t freak out’

Hobbs urged voters not to panic, saying he believes November’s election will proceed as planned.

“Don’t freak out, because there will be an injunction that’ll be filed really soon, and I believe that this November election will not be affected,” Hobbs said.

He added that even in a worst-case scenario, voters still have options.

“If all else fails, there is also the ability for someone to go to their local county election center,” Hobbs said. “They can vote in person there. They can also print out their ballot and take it to the nearest drop box.”

Hobbs closed by expressing frustration with the ongoing fight.

“I’m quite frustrated that once again we are getting another monkey wrench thrown at us by this administration to mess with our constitutional right to conduct elections,” Hobbs said.