Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – August 30, 2026
by Tony Wikrent
War on voting
Joyce Vance, Aug 28, 2026 [Civil Discourse]
After the Supreme Court made a (purely procedural) decision about Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting, rejecting judicial action in the case brought by blue state AGs because it wasn’t “ripe” for a decision yet, Judge Indira Talwani did the logical thing. She gave the plaintiffs in that case and in the case brought by the League of Women Voters a push toward updating their lawsuits. The government showed off the final rule it wants to use to implement the executive order. The ripeness argument is now moot. The administration zeroed it out when the Postal Service announced its final rule was ready to publish. The rule was published on Wednesday….
In essence, the Supreme Court directed her that the government hadn’t taken enough steps toward implementing Trump’s EO for the court to know what that implementation would look like and whether it was lawful. Too soon, the Supreme Court told Judge Talwani. You need to wait for the government to do more.
Now, the government has done more….
Judge Talwani also took a gentle, but satisfying slap at the Court, pointing out that the Trump administration isn’t exactly playing by the rules when it comes to court orders: ….
With the background laid out, we hit a critical juncture in the Judge’s decision. Here’s the most important thing to understand: the government defendants, who just days ago were arguing that the plaintiffs’ case wasn’t ripe for the court to decide, are now arguing that it’s too late for the court to intervene. Yes, you read that right. Too early has now become too late, with no Goldilocks spot in the middle. So much for the “justice” in Justice Department.
Here’s how Judge Talwani explains it. It’s worth reading her full layout: ….
The bottom line here is so grotesque that it’s impossible to imagine any other Justice Department advocating for such a plan, and any court taking longer than a few moments to reject it, as Judge Talwani did today. She notes that the government defendants “offer no reply to Plaintiff States’ assertion that compliance for the 2026 midterm elections will be impossible for many of them.” And what’s at stake is the right of Americans to vote. She notes the “significant risk of disenfranchisement” and finds that “In light of the State election officials’ unrebutted declarations that compliance with the Final Rule at this late date is impossible, the risk of irreparable harm to voters in those jurisdictions is grave.” As for the League of Women Voters, their members face irreparable harm for the same reasons—because they live in states that will be unable to comply with these new measures, and so, their ballots will not count.
This is another key point we should all note. Why won’t the ballots count? It’s not because the voters involved aren’t eligible to vote. They are. It’s not because they’ve done anything wrong—failed to register or vote in a timely fashion. They haven’t. Americans will be disenfranchised because Donald Trump does not want them to vote. No legal sleight of hand can legitimize that….
We’ve now reached the point in this case where the lawfulness—or not—of what Trump wants to do to our elections takes center stage. The case will go back to the Supreme Court and the Court will have to decide whether the Constitution, which clearly leaves this bit of election administration up to the states, still matters. Will the Roberts Court decide to undo 250 years of American democracy? Are there five votes left for the rule of law? One hopes that even on this court, a majority, however slender, that will do the right thing exists….
The Battle Over Mail-In Ballots
Robert Kuttner, August 28 2026 [The American Prospect]
… How does Trump get to dictate Postal Service meddling in partisan politics? As our colleague David Dayen has been writing for more than a decade, one reason is that the last two Democratic presidents, Biden and Obama, have been asleep at the switch.
Obama did not fill a single vacancy on the Postal Service Board of Governors during his entire eight-year term of office. As Dayen pointed out in a piece for The New Republic in 2014 (long before he joined the Prospect), the inspector general of the Postal Service proposed that the USPS provide basic postal banking, but it never happened—because the Postal Service’s board was still dominated by George W. Bush appointees. And Biden left in place Trump appointee Louis DeJoy as postmaster general because he never bothered to appoint enough board members to fire him….
States Are Quietly War-Gaming Trump Interference in the Midterm Elections
[The Allen Analysis, Aug 25, 2026, via Naked Capitalism 08-26-2026]
Democratic officials are preparing for seized voting machines, blocked mail ballots, rogue county officials and an attempt to prevent elected members of Congress from taking their seats.
Wyoming’s Primaries Were a Preview of Trump’s Midterm Interference – Mother Jones
Sophie Hurwitz, Aug 29, 2026 [motherjones.com]
Revisiting: Can Federal Troops Be Stationed At The Polls In 2026?
Joyce Vance, Aug 27, 2026 [Civil Discourse]
… The Bangor, Maine, Daily News reported earlier this week that the Republican nominee for Governor, Bobby Charles, told a group of young Republicans, “I’m going to ask Tom — three or four weeks before the election, maybe three — I’m going to make an appeal for ICE and marshals to be at our voting booths.” He continued, “Do you think the illegals who are being paid money are going to like that?”
Charles was taped. You can listen to the audio—exclusively obtained by the Daily News—here.
“Tom” is a reference to Tom Homan, Trump’s “Border Czar.” Apparently Homan and Charles are pals; Charles says they were on Fox together in the audio. (Homan, you may recall, was reportedly investigated for taking what he thought was a $50,000 cash bribe from a man who was actually an undercover FBI agent. Pam Bondi summarily dropped the investigation early in her tenure as AG.) Homan is decidedly in support of Trump’s anti-immigrant policy. He blamed state and local law enforcement for the federal presence in Minneapolis when he took over from Gregory Bovino after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. And Trump, of course, has been working the whole “illegal immigrants voting” narrative, despite the absence of evidence to support it, as a convenient excuse for interfering with the upcoming elections. It’s the basis for his contested executive order to use the Postal Service to control who can get a mail ballot….
War
Lawrence Wilkerson: U.S. Considers Nuclear Strike Against Iran
Glenn Diesen, Aug 19, 2026, via Naked Capitalism 08-24-2026]