CA's slow vote count under attack via Supreme Court mail-ballot case

California's law allowing ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive up to seven days later is designed to include working families, rural voters, and those with unstable housing. The process includes signature verification and cross-checking to protect against fraud, not enable it. This feature has drawn political attacks: Trump and allies stoke baseless fraud claims, and a pending Supreme Court case, Watson v. Republican National Committee (argued March 23, 2026, ruling expected late June/early July), could force states to discard ballots arriving after Election Day even if mailed on time, effectively suppressing Democratic-leaning mail voters. On March 31, 2026, President Trump issued Executive Order 14399, 'Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,' which charges the USPS with determining who may vote by mail and instructs it to refuse ballots that fail new, stricter requirements — a clear attempt to seize control of mail voting administratively (see Issue One explainer). Separately, the DOJ has accused California of blocking its audit of voter rolls and has sued over 20 states for refusing to hand over voter data, actions the Brennan Center says are part of a plan to interfere with elections (see KTLA report and Brennan Center analysis). Each of these actions — the executive order, the DOJ audits, and the Supreme Court case — is a piece of the Project 2025 playbook to narrow the electorate by limiting when and how ballots count. Reversal requires court challenges (already underway, e.g., ACLU lawsuit filed in Massachusetts) and legislation like the For the People Act to codify postmark deadlines and ban such executive overreach.