A group of Democratic governors asked the U.S. Postal Service to withdraw its proposed rule seeking to implement an executive order from President Donald Trump to create a federal list of eligible voters and potentially limit who can receive a ballot in the mail.
Constitutional Concerns
The president signed the order in March, directing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration to create a “citizenship list” for each state and the Postal Service to limit mailed ballots to those on the lists. However, a federal judge has blocked Trump’s executive order and barred agencies from implementing it, saying it was unconstitutional because only states and Congress — not the president — have the power to set election rules.
The letter sent by nine Democratic governors, including those representing California, New York, and the presidential battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, cited the judge’s ruling and asked that the Postal Service withdraw the rule it had proposed to fulfill Trump’s order. The governors argued that the proposed rule would undermine trust in elections, needlessly complicate voting processes, arbitrarily disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, and undermine states’ constitutional role in ensuring free and fair elections.
The proposed rule would grant, they argued, “unilateral power to refuse to deliver their ballots if a state refuses to collaborate with President Trump’s unlawful directives.” The Postal Service did not immediately respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
Reaction from Postal Workers
The executive order also met pushback from postal workers, with the president of the American Postal Workers union, Jonathan Smith, previously saying that their job was not to “verify voter eligibility” but to “move mail from one destination to the next.”
Trump’s order is part of his efforts to target voting by noncitizens, which studies and investigations by state and local authorities have shown to be rare. Trump also has fixated on voting by mail as a source of fraud, even though he also uses the method. There is no indication of any widespread problems with mail voting, which has gained in popularity among Democrats and Republicans alike.
Original reporting: WESH Orlando — read the source article.
