Minnesota voters will not be affected by Supreme Court ruling on mail voting, Secretary of State says

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon says Minnesota voters will not be affected in November by a plan put forward by President Trump and cleared by the Supreme Court to limit mail voting.

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with implementing key parts of an executive order that tightens the rules for mail voting.

Voting by mail is increasingly popular in Minnesota. During the August primary, a record 116,000 voters returned their ballots by mail. During the election in November 2025, 446,000 Minnesotans used the mail to vote.

Simon says nothing will change for Minnesotans who are planning to vote by mail in the November general election. He argues Mr. Trump's actions to limit mail voters to only those on pre-approved state lists is unconstitutional, and Minnesota will continue to fight any effort by the Trump administration on the issue.

"What the Supreme Court did do was they opened up the possibility that something could change. Now I have to say, if I had to predict, I would say it won't change for a number of reasons. First, I think the law is on our side, not theirs, in terms of whether they can even do this thing," Simon said.

Mr. Trump, despite voting by mail in the last Florida election, has long worked to curb mail ballots.

"Trump still believes, growing out of the 2020 elections that, the election was stolen and he believes that mail-in ballots are riddled with fraud, even though there's absolutely no evidence to support his contentions," said David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University. 

The Trump administration has tried for months to get Minnesota to turn over a pre-approved list of voters to the U.S. Justice Department. Minnesota and at least 28 other states have refused to turn over those lists.

The Supreme Court ruling allows the Trump administration's plan to limit mail votes to state lists to continue, but for now does not take a stand on the merits of his proposal, which continues to be controversial even with some members of his own party.

"If he were to get his way, he would probably hurt just as many Republicans who vote early as you would hurt Democrats or Independents," said Schultz.

The Minnesota Attorney General's office tells us they are currently exploring every possible legal option to fight the President's plan.