If you vote by mail in McHenry County, you probably saw County Clerk Joe Tirio’s office issue a statement this week about a presidential executive order aimed at mail-in ballots. It’s short, it’s calm, and it leaves out some things worth knowing before your ballot shows up.
Here’s the statement, and then let’s walk through it.
“I, along with my colleagues in the Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, the Illinois State Board of Elections, and the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, have been closely monitoring the ongoing litigation over President Trump’s executive order requiring the US Postal Service to develop guidelines on the delivery of vote-by-mail ballots. As the situation currently stands, the County Clerk’s Office is preparing to send out vote-by-mail ballots on Thursday, Sept. 24 as scheduled. However, we have been working with our vendor to position ourselves to comply with the executive order, should that be necessary.”
The Order in Question
The statement is about Executive Order 14399, “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” which the President signed on March 31, 2026. Among other things, it directs the U.S. Postal Service to write new rules restricting which mail-in and absentee ballots it will deliver.
An Executive Order is Not a Law
This is the part that gets lost. An executive order is a directive the President issues to the agencies and officials of the executive branch, it tells federal employees how to do their jobs. It is not legislation passed by Congress, and it does not bind state or local governments, private citizens, or agencies that operate independently of White House control.
That distinction matters here for two reasons.
First, elections are run by states, not the President. The Constitution gives that authority to state legislatures and Congress. A long line of court challenges to this exact order, brought by Illinois and more than twenty other states, argues that the order oversteps that line.
Second, USPS is not a normal executive agency. The Postal Service was restructured by Congress in 1970 into an independent establishment that is deliberately insulated from day-to-day presidential control. Whether the President can order USPS around the way he can, say, the Department of Homeland Security is itself a live legal question , one of the very questions being litigated right now.
Where the Lawsuits Actually Stand
This has moved fast, and it’s easy to lose the thread, so here’s where things sit as of early September 2026:
- Illinois is one of more than twenty states (plus the District of Columbia) suing to block the order, arguing it violates the separation of powers, the Constitution’s Elections Clause, and the Tenth Amendment.
- Lower courts, including a federal district court in Massachusetts and the First Circuit Court of Appeals, largely sided with the states and kept the order blocked while the case proceeded.
- On August 24, 2026, the Supreme Court stepped in on an emergency basis, in a case captioned Trump v. California (No. 26A124), and lifted the block in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines.
- Here’s the key detail: the Court did not rule that the order is constitutional. It ruled on standing, holding that the states’ claimed financial harm was too speculative because USPS hadn’t yet finalized its mail-ballot rule when they sued. Justice Sotomayor’s dissent, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, made clear the ruling “does not address whether the President’s attempts to interfere with States’ administration of the November 2026 elections are lawful” and “merely postpones adjudication of those challenges.”
- Because the ruling turned on that timing problem, the injunction was lifted “without prejudice”, meaning the states were free to sue again once the harm became real. That didn’t take long: on August 26, USPS published its final rule, and a related nationwide injunction blocking USPS’s rulemaking was lifted that same day.
- The states didn’t wait. A coalition of two dozen states (including Illinois) and voting-rights groups immediately went back to court to challenge the finalized rule directly. A federal judge has since issued a new order, currently a temporary restraining order, blocking the rule’s mandatory provisions for the 2026 election, with a hearing today, September 3, on whether to extend that into a longer preliminary injunction.
In plain terms: the states didn’t lose on the merits, they lost on a technicality about timing, and the case is expected to continue now that USPS has actually issued a rule. The administration got a green light to proceed for now, but the core question of whether any of this is constitutional still hasn’t been decided.
What this Means Locally
Clerk Tirio’s statement says his office still plans to mail ballots on Thursday, September 24, as scheduled and that his office has also been working with its vendor to be ready to comply with the executive order if it has to. That’s a reasonable, cautious position for a county election official to take given how unsettled things are.
But “unsettled” is exactly why voters shouldn’t just assume everything will go smoothly.
Have a Backup Plan
If you normally vote by mail, it’s worth knowing your options in case something changes between now and Election Day, or in case your ballot is delayed, rejected, or caught up in new USPS handling rules:
- You can vote early in person. Early voting begins the same day ballots go out, September 24, at County Clerk locations.
- You can vote in person on Election Day, November 3, even if you requested a mail ballot, as long as you haven’t already returned it. Bring your mail ballot with you to surrender if you have it, or be prepared to vote a provisional ballot if you don’t.
- Track your ballot. McHenry County’s vote-by-mail ballots use tracking, so you can confirm it was mailed, delivered, and received back by the Clerk’s office.
- Don’t wait until the last minute to return a mail ballot this cycle. Given the possibility of new USPS handling requirements, mail it back, or drop it at an official drop box, or the Clerk’s office, as early as you can.
What His Oath of Office Actually Requires
Like every county official in Illinois, Clerk Tirio took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and to faithfully discharge the duties of his office. That oath is what should guide his decisions here, not deference to a President whose executive order a majority of states, including Illinois, argue is itself unconstitutional and outside any lawful presidential authority over elections.
An executive order that courts may ultimately strike down doesn’t relieve a local official of that obligation. If anything, it’s exactly the kind of moment the oath is meant for: a reminder that the Clerk’s duty runs to the Illinois and U.S. Constitutions and to McHenry County voters first, not to whichever administration currently occupies the White House.
Your vote matters, and so does holding the officials who administer it to that standard.
— Neighbors for a Better McHenry County