North Carolina became the first US state to begin distributing mail-in ballots for the 2026 midterm elections on 2026-09-04, formally opening an election season that culminates on November 3 and will determine control of Congress. ^[1] President Donald Trump is asking the US Supreme Court to revive restrictions on mail voting that a federal judge blocked, leaving election officials uncertain about the rules that will govern millions of ballots. ^[2] Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to restore restrictions on mail-in voting that were adopted by executive order before being blocked by a judge. ^[3] North Carolina began sending mail-in ballots on the Friday that began the 60-day period before the November 3 election, officially launching the US midterm election season that will decide control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term. ^[4] An anonymous USPS whistleblower alleged that the new ballot verification portal was developed through a 'rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed' process, and that under a proposed 'zero-percent failure' policy, a single barcode failure could cause an entire batch of thousands of ballots to be rejected until rechecked. ^[5] Marc Elias, founder of voting rights platform Democracy Docket, said on his YouTube show that states set the time, place and manner of elections, not the president, and that the president has no power over federal elections. ^[6] According to a Cornell University projection model, the Democratic opposition has 8 chances out of 10 to take control of the House of Representatives. ^[7] Marc Elias, founder of the US voting rights platform Democracy Docket, said that states set the date, place, and manner of elections, not the president, and that the president has no power over federal elections. ^[8]