The Trump administration renewed its appeal to the US supreme court on Sunday to allow restrictions on mail-in voting, after a federal judge had blocked new limits on such ballots, just ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The latest filing follows a decision by US district court judge Indira Talwani on Friday to extend a court order preventing the US Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing Donald Trump’s executive order.

The legal fight was continuing as states begin sending out ballots for voters to vote by mail – giving the administration little time to make major changes to the rules.

“Ballots have already begun to be mailed in North Carolina, and more states will begin the mailing process as the injunction remains in place – including Alabama on September 9 and at least five states the week of September 13,” the solicitor general, John Sauer, said in the filing to the supreme court on Sunday.

“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them. And while the injunction allows the Postal Service and the states to continue taking steps to ensure that their envelopes satisfy the rule’s requirements … each day the injunction is in place risks sowing confusion and chaos because the injunction makes those preparatory steps voluntary, rather than mandatory,” Sauer continued in the emergency application.

It is the third time the administration has asked the highest court in the US to step into the dispute and that court has allowed the plan to move forward but has not decided whether it was legal.

The outcome of the wrangling could have significant consequences for this year’s elections, with control of Congress on the line. Nearly one-third of US voters cast their ballots by mail.

The US president signed an executive order in March that would prohibit the USPS from delivering ballots to any voters not on a federal list of citizens deemed eligible to vote in each state by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The result would mean a limited delivery of ballots – ie only to voters on approved lists.

Democratic states and voting rights groups argue the ordered changes are unconstitutional, while state election officials who run the elections say there is not enough time to overhaul their systems to meet the new federal directives.

The Trump administration has called its plans to limit mail-in ballots “commonsense measures” which are aimed at protecting voting security, and further called the order blocking those plans “unreasoned and unlawful”.

Trump has repeatedly sought to restrict voting by mail, despite having often used the method himself. He has falsely blamed mail balloting for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, while promoting baseless claims of fraud.

The USPS has said it stands ready to implement Trump’s new restrictions, which would require states to give the postal service the names and barcodes tied to mail-in ballots for federal elections, if the court injunctions are lifted.