Washington County's Oct. 14 ballot mailing is secure after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's attempt to restrict mail voting nationwide.

The court ruled 7-2 on Monday, Sept. 14, to keep a lower court's freeze on the restrictions in place, finding that the federal government "is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge." Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The ruling ends months of legal uncertainty that had threatened to disrupt Oregon's all-mail election system weeks before ballots go out. Washington County's Elections Division will mail ballots to all registered voters on Oct. 14, according to the county elections page. The Nov. 3 election includes a runoff for county chair between Commissioners Nafisa Fai and Pam Treece, who finished first and second in the May 19 primary with 39.1% and 33.1% of the vote, Valley Times reported. A District 4 commissioner runoff is also on the ballot.

Under the proposed restrictions, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) could have refused to deliver ballots to states that didn't submit voter lists to a federal portal or meet specific envelope design requirements. A whistleblower report warned the portal wasn't properly built and that a single bar code error could cause an entire batch of ballots to be tossed, OPB reported.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement carried by OregonLive that the ruling means Oregonians will continue to vote in November the same way they have for decades. Oregon was among more than 20 states that sued to block the restrictions, according to the Statesman Journal.

Secretary of State Tobias Read called the decision a victory for Oregonians and the rule of law in a statement and urged voters to return ballots by drop box or mail them back at least seven days before Election Day. At a Sept. 8 press conference in Salem, before the ruling came down, Read said, "States run elections, not presidents. And the Postal Service's job is to deliver the mail, not to decide who gets to vote."

That early-return advice carries weight locally. During the May primary, more than 7,300 Oregon ballots that arrived during the post-election grace period were rejected for late postmarks, a 13.1% rejection rate higher than any prior election, according to the Hillsboro News-Times.

The ruling does not permanently settle the legal question.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who voted with the majority, wrote that "there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority" but that election officials lacked time to implement it before November, according to Votebeat.

Bethany and Cedar Mill residents can use ballot drop boxes at the Bethany Library at 15325 NW Central Dr. and the Cedar Mill Community Library at 1080 NW Saltzman Rd. Drop boxes open after ballots are mailed and close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. The last day to register to vote is Oct. 13.