President Donald Trump is dragging the US Postal Service deeper into his battle on mail-in voting.
After years of baselessly casting vote by mail as a fraud magnet, Trump in March issued an executive order that may push USPS far past delivering ballots — and into the enterprise of deciding who will get one.
That order has raised alarms inside the Postal Service over whether or not it could possibly or ought to tackle such an advanced and controversial function, sources instructed NCS, particularly when it could need assistance from Trump and Republicans to regular its funds.
Under the order, the Postal Service would work with states to find out who can vote by mail and implement that eligibility, flagging or rejecting ballots tied to individuals not on these lists. Voting-rights teams and a few Democratic-led states say that’s an unconstitutional energy seize: The Constitution provides states — not the president or USPS — management over election administration.
“USPS is no longer merely a carrier of ballots; it is instead transformed into a gatekeeper of voter eligibility,” legal professionals difficult the order wrote.
Even as the lawsuits transfer by federal court docket, the order directs the Postal Service to start the first stage of implementation — its rulemaking course of — by the finish of May. The Postal Service says it’s begun that course of, however present and former postal officers query whether or not a cash-strapped USPS may tackle a sweeping new election function — or whether or not its unbiased board may refuse.
Still, USPS is making an attempt to conform, balancing its authorized authority with a need to keep away from a confrontation with the White House or Congress, two sources conversant in the discussions instructed NCS.
The timing is fraught. On Friday, the Postal Service announced an almost $2 billion quarterly loss, and USPS leaders have warned that the company, already dealing with operational cutbacks and an unsustainable enterprise mannequin, may run out of cash inside a yr with out assist from Congress and the administration.
“If the Postal Service decides to do this, it will be a disaster,” former USPS Board of Governors Chair S. David Fineman instructed NCS. “They don’t have the resources to build this or the administrative infrastructure to do it.”
It’s the newest escalation in a combat that first flared in 2020, when Trump threatened to withhold USPS funding as mail-in voting surged throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, with the Supreme Court weighing limits on counting ballots that arrive after Election Day, Trump is once more making an attempt to reshape how — and whether or not — Americans vote by mail, and he desires the Postal Service to assist.
Trump’s March order directs the federal authorities to construct “state citizenship lists” of eligible voters utilizing federal information, together with Social Security and immigration data — instruments which have shown limits and errors when used to confirm citizenship. It pressures states to cross-check their voter rolls in opposition to these lists and to take away individuals the federal authorities deems ineligible.
It then requires the Postal Services to work with states on a narrowed checklist of voters accredited to obtain mail-in ballots — and to cease delivering absentee ballots to or from anybody not on that checklist. The aim is to make sure mail ballots are despatched solely to eligible voters, a White House official instructed NCS.
“Absentee ballots do not currently abide by the same secure processes that exist for in-person voting, and the USPS rule will fix that,” the official stated.
But voting-rights legal professionals warn that may successfully flip USPS into an election enforcement arm, though there’s no proof of widespread fraud from ballots solid by mail.
The order additionally raises the menace of legal penalties for delivering ballots to ineligible voters, alarming the nation’s largest postal unions, which concern their members might be put at authorized threat in the event that they’re pushed into policing voter eligibility.
“We are frankly very skeptical about our ability to even do this effectively,” National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian Renfroe instructed NCS, saying his union is urgent Postal Service leaders on the best way to implement a plan with out politicizing the company. “I’m very concerned about where this road leads.”
In one in all the lawsuits introduced by Democratic-led states, lawmakers and voting rights teams, the district court docket choose has set a listening to for Thursday, which means there might be a ruling forward of the Postal Service rulemaking deadline at the finish of the month.
Election legislation specialists say the order is prone to be struck down by the courts as a result of it clashes with procedures set by states for absentee voting, and the Constitution grants states the energy to run elections. Trump’s government order final yr on voting, which mandated a proof-of-citizenship requirement to register to vote, was blocked by the courts.
Current and former election officers say the newest order would trigger chaos at the state degree as a result of it clashes with many state legal guidelines. In specific, it features a provision that requires the checklist of eligible mail-in voters to be despatched 60 days earlier than an election, a deadline that’s nicely earlier than when many states enable voters to register or request a mail poll.
“They would be completely at odds,” stated Kathy Boockvar, a former Pennsylvania secretary of state who runs an election safety agency. “It puts extra burdens on election officials with, of course, no funding, no infrastructure and no support.”
Conservative teams and a dozen Republican-led states have lined up behind the administration, arguing that mail voting is susceptible to abuse and that the Postal Service has the energy to limit mailed ballots.
“The goal is simple: make sure the Postal Service knows that every federal ballot it delivers was sent by a lawful election authority to a verified voter, and make sure it can trace every one of those ballots from start to finish,” the conservative group America First Legal wrote in a petition to USPS.
Even now, key particulars of Trump’s plan stay murky. In one current Justice Department submitting, authorities legal professionals described the USPS program as “voluntary and on a state-by-state basis.”
“Then we’re opting out. No, thank you,” joked Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, whose state is amongst these suing the Trump administration to dam the government order. “It’s not realistic and it’s not legal.”
The Department of Homeland Security can be weighing the best way to perform Trump’s order. In a court docket submitting this month, a DHS official stated it has “not yet begun preparation of any ‘State Citizenship List’” and has not determined which federal databases it could use to create them.
In the Justice Department’s filings to dismiss the lawsuits, company legal professionals outlined potential methods the order might be used, together with for “post-election law-enforcement” of voter fraud.
USPS leaders and legal professionals at the moment are deliberating the best way to perform Trump’s order, a Postal Service official stated in a court docket submitting this month. In a quick assertion, a USPS spokesperson confirmed they’re “working on a draft of a proposed rule.”
One choice beneath dialogue would require states to supply a written checklist of voters receiving mail ballots after they hand over batches of ballots to be delivered, based on a supply conversant in the talks. That strategy would largely preserve USPS in its conventional function of processing, monitoring and delivering mail.
But some inside the company query whether or not it has the authorized authority — or the sensible capacity — to maintain voter lists or confirm ballots in opposition to them, the supply stated.
The administration has not stated who would pay for the company’s potential new workload.
“It is not a postal worker’s responsibility to verify who can vote and who can’t vote,” stated Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers Union. “When you politicize us, then you take away the trust that we have earned from the American people.”
The rhetoric undermining mail-in voting has grown so poisonous that the union launched a nationwide TV advert marketing campaign in April selling the safety and reliability of the apply.
“It was a message to the American people that vote by mail works,” Smith stated. “It’s safe, it’s efficient and it gives people opportunity.”
Former USPS Board of Governors Vice Chair Anton Hajjar stated implementing the order is “infeasible,” particularly earlier than the midterms, and appears designed to make mail-in voting more durable.
“The Postal Service has done a very, very good job, and there is really no documentation of any fraud being committed in mail balloting,” Hajjar instructed NCS. “Even if it were lawful, I think this would be an enormous undertaking.”
Voting-rights legal professionals and a few former senior postal officers, together with Hajjar, say USPS — an unbiased entity ruled by its board — seemingly has the energy to withstand or outright reject the president’s directives. So far, although, it has not finished so publicly.
“If the Postal Service is correctly an apolitical body, it doesn’t need to pick a fight, it doesn’t need to start a fight — it can just not do it,” stated Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor who labored on voting points in Democratic administrations. “The thing (Trump) has asked to regulate is a thing he can’t ask. And I think the postmaster general knows that. The board of governors know that.”
But the Postal Service finds itself in a precarious place — navigating Trump’s calls for because it desperately seeks to stabilize its future.
Postmaster General David Steiner warned Congress in March that USPS might be out of money within a year with out legislative motion. The Postal Service has spent years pushing lawmakers for a monetary overhaul that may let it borrow extra money and loosen long-standing limits on postage charges — adjustments that hinge on lawmakers and the president.
In March 2025, at the behest of the Trump administration, then-Postmaster General Louis DeJoy granted the Department of Government Efficiency restricted entry at USPS to assist with cost-cutting and effectivity, drawing swift criticism over the company’s statutory independence. But behind the scenes, DeJoy’s restrictions on DOGE annoyed some inside the administration — and the tug-of-war solely fueled Trump’s push to oust him, based on two former senior USPS officers.
Trump has since nominated 4 candidates to the USPS board, which presently has solely 4 seated members — probably reshaping it into a board extra prepared to back his agenda.