This is some first-class nonsense
Today, the U.S. Postal Service released a proposed rule to implement Trump’s executive order attacking mail voting. The plan: USPS will only deliver ballots to voters on a federal government-approved list. If your name isn’t on the list, you don’t get a ballot.
Let me say that again so it lands. The federal government would decide who receives their ballots by mail.
Here’s what you need to know.
This is some first-class nonsense. The President does not have the authority to do this. Under the Constitution, states run elections. Only Congress can set national standards for voting. This executive order attempts to federalize a process that has always been controlled by state and local election officials, and it does so without a single vote in Congress.
This proposed rule would require state election officials to submit a list of voters who have requested a mail-in or absentee ballot. If a voter isn’t on that list, no ballot.
USPS itself acknowledges this will produce errors, because the rule includes provisions for states to submit “supplemental” lists to fix mistakes. They are building an error-correction process into a system that didn’t need to exist in the first place.
The federal databases this system would rely on, including Department of Homeland Security records, have already been shown to contain serious flaws. Eligible voters will be excluded.
A federal judge declined to block the executive order yesterday, saying agencies hadn’t yet taken steps to implement it. Now they have.
Multiple lawsuits are challenging this order. But litigation takes time, and the 2026 midterms are five months away.
This is why VoteAmerica exists.
We build free tools that help voters navigate a system that is actively being made harder to use. Our absentee ballot request tool, our ballot tracking tool, our polling place lookup, and our election reminders. When the rules change or the process gets more confusing, we work to update our tools so voters don’t fall through the cracks.
We run permanent absentee voting (PAV) recruitment in 10 states (plus DC!), which signs voters up to automatically receive a ballot for every future election. PAV produces a roughly 13-percentage-point increase in turnout, and it’s the single highest-impact tactic we’ve identified for midterm elections. Programs like this are exactly what’s under threat.
We don’t know yet what this proposed rule will look like in its final form, or whether the courts will stop it. What we do know is that millions of voters are about to be confused about whether they’ll receive their ballots this fall. Our job is to make sure they have the information they need to vote regardless.
Election Day doesn’t move. Neither does our commitment to making sure every voter knows when to vote, where to vote, and what to bring, no matter what USPS or anyone else throws at them.
More soon,
Debra
