Postmaster general says USPS won't deliver mail ballots if states don’t give Trump admin voter rolls

Key Points:

• Postmaster General David Steiner stated that under a new USPS rule, mail ballots will not be delivered unless states provide voter lists to the Trump administration, effectively requiring states to share sensitive voter data with the federal government.
• The proposed regulation mandates state election officials to send USPS a list of voters requesting mail-in or absentee ballots at least 30 days before ballots are sent, creating a federal absentee voter registration list, which critics argue infringes on states' constitutional control over elections.
• Senators, including Gary Peters and Margaret Hassan, condemned the proposal as coercive, illegal, and harmful to voter participation, with Hassan calling for its immediate withdrawal and Peters warning it could prevent people from voting by mail.
• Steiner defended the rule by referencing USPS’s Kit 600 best practices but faced criticism for conflating recommendations with enforceable mandates; he also acknowledged USPS would comply if courts block the rule amid ongoing legal challenges.
• The controversy highlights a departure from USPS’s traditional nonpartisan role in elections, with Steiner simultaneously criticizing a mail ballot error in Maryland while endorsing a rule seen as politicizing mail voting.