Postmaster general’s remarks on mail ballots stoke fears among voting rights advocates

Postmaster General David Steiner stoked fears among Democrats and voting rights groups this week after confirming the U.S. Postal Service will no longer deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to provide sensitive voter data to the federal government.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on mail-in voting is becoming a point of contention ahead of November’s general election. Critics have sounded the alarm on what they call the federal government’s attempt to overstep its authority. Some courts have agreed.

A federal judge on Thursday blocked the proposal from moving forward after a slate of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit. 

Celina Stewart, chief executive officer of the League of Women Voters, said the postmaster general’s statement creates a “credibility issue.”

“The comments that he made are particularly concerning because voting is a right, and now it’s being presented as like this risk profile, and when access to the ballot starts being treated as suspicious behavior, which I think is the underlying thing here, democracy itself starts to be audited, I think, which is really problematic,” Stewart said.

“And if we think about why the Postal Service exists, it’s to serve the public, not to serve as a data pipeline for political agendas.”

President Trump issued an executive order in March directing the agency to propose a rule requiring states to provide a list to the Postal Service of eligible voters at least 60 days before any federal elections, in line with the president’s efforts to crack down on suspected mail-in voter fraud.

Lawmakers at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last week asked about whether his agency will continue to mail ballots to states that refuse to comply with the Trump administration’s proposed rule. Steiner replied: “Under our proposed regulation, no.”

He defended the measure, saying it was to ensure that “the right ballots are going to the right people.”

“I would think that states would want the information to ensure that the ballots that they think they’re sending out are the ballots that are actually getting sent out,” said Steiner, who reports to the Postal Service board of directors.

Minnesota........

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