KY secretary of state is among GOP election officials against Trump mail-in ballot rule

Karla Ward, Lexington Herald-Leader on Sep 13, 2026

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Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams is one of 38 election officials, many of whom are Republicans, who have filed a brief in opposition to President Donald Trump’s new limits on mail-in ballots.

In March, Trump issued an executive order that requires states to give lists of voters receiving mail-in ballots to the U.S. Postal Service, which is directed to only deliver ballots to people on those lists. Each ballot envelope is to have a unique barcode specific to an individual voter.

The changes have been subject to multiple legal challenges, and a federal court has prevented the postal service from fully implementing the plan. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to reverse that.

The brief filed by the elections officials with the Supreme Court on Wednesday says the new rule should not be implemented before the 2026 midterm elections because of “the preparation and execution necessary to administer a smooth election and the difficulties that late process changes cause.”

The elections officials who signed the document said they are not taking a position “on whether the rule itself is good or bad.”

They say some states, such as North Carolina, have already begun mailing absentee ballots, others will begin soon, and there isn’t time to properly set up the new system.

“The Rule requires significant work from USPS and state and local election officials to implement, including building and testing new systems, creating data imports and exports that are compatible with those new systems, and putting in place new processes for mailing ballots. Normally, these types of changes would go through significant end-to-end testing,” the brief states.

“Attempting to implement the Rule now will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion for both voters and election officials.”

The rule was released in its final form Aug. 21 and ordered to take effect immediately, which allowed only 48 working days before Election Day, the elections officials argue.

The elections officials argue there isn’t time for the envelopes to be generated and approved, they are concerned about the lack of testing of the new Federal Mail Ballot Portal, and they say the verification requirements cannot be met.

In addition to Adams, the brief was signed by the secretaries of state from Georgia, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota; the lieutenant governor of Utah; local election officials from Georgia, Oregon and Utah; former elections officials from Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Missouri; and by the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities and the Civic Right Action Fund.

The document says the officials signed in their individual capacities and not on behalf of the jurisdictions they serve.

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