Postmaster General Defends Proposal To Require State Voter Lists for Mail-in Ballots

The postmaster general, David Steiner, on Wednesday, defended a proposed rule requiring states to provide the Postal Service with mail-in voter lists in order for the agency to deliver ballots.Congressional Democrats claim the rule is an unconstitutional attempt to restrict voting by mail. “This is basically a back-door way for the federal government to get voting information that states control under the U.S. Constitution,” Senator Gary Peters told Mr. Steiner at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.“The postal service is not a political organization,” Mr. Steiner told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We deliver the mail. That’s what we do. We deliver mail and that’s what ballots are. Ballots are mail. Now, they are a special kind of mail, obviously. They need special care.”President Trump signed an executive order in March seeking to require citizenship verification and identification requirements to vote. The only mail-in ballots that would be approved would be for illness, disability, travel, or members of the military deployed away from their home state.To help with enforcement with the rules, the postal service seeks to require states to turn over voter rolls. The plan would require states to provide the postal agency with detailed data on any voters who would receive ballots and create unique barcodes tied to mail-in ballots for any federal election. Mr. Steiner said special envelopes with bar codes will make it easier to protect ballots. He said several states, including Florida and California already use a similar system for local elections.“It’s not a political question. It’s a question of, ‘How do we most efficiently and securely move ballots?’ We’ve been recommending this for many years,” Mr. Steiner said. When Democrats pressed, Mr. Steiner confirmed that under the proposed rule the postal service would refuse to mail any ballots in states that don’t provide absentee voter lists.Committee Democrats repeatedly attacked the rule change. Senator Maggie Hassan said it was “blatantly illegal.” “You’re a pawn in this, unfortunately,” Senator Elissa Slotkin said. “I don’t think you are a bad person from what I know of you.”Republican Senator Bernie Moreno defended the plan and said it would help the post office stop voting scams.“It’s really trying to help the states make sure that the ballots that they send to the voters get there,” Mr. Steiner said. “It’s strictly a manifest to make sure the right ballots are going to the right people.”Senator Richard Blumenthal called the proposed rules “bogus” and a “sham” and asked if the postal service had any Constitutional authority to review ballots or deny service to anyone mailing in a ballot. Mr. Steiner said he couldn’t answer that question and would have to defer to lawyers to answer.The Trump administration is already facing legal challenges on the executive order. President Trump is pressuring Senate Republicans to pass a voting reform bill, the SAVE America Act.Mr. Trump has threatened to veto all bills until Congress passes the act. On Wednesday, he abruptly canceled the signing of a major bipartisan housing reform bill until the SAVE America Act hit his desk.While Democrats focused on election ballots, Wednesday’s Senate hearing was supposed to center on reforming the postal service’s “broken” business model. Mr. Steiner repeated warnings that the agency was running out of cash and needed Congress to overhaul regulations for it to survive.Earlier this month, members of the Postal Regulatory Commission said the mail service lost $20 billion in the past decade and needs dramatic structural change to stay afloat.The committee chairman, Senator Rand Paul said he would support lifting all of the Congressional mandates the postal service faces to help keep it afloat. He suggested that if the agency was allowed to cut mail service to four days a week it would eliminate two-thirds of the annual operating losses it faces.

Postmaster General Defends Proposal To Require State Voter Lists for Mail-in Ballots

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