On Thursday, a coalition of Democratic governors requested that the U.S. Postal Service retract a proposed regulation. This rule aimed to actualize President Donald Trump’s executive order for forming a federal list of eligible voters, potentially restricting mail ballot recipients.
President Trump enacted the order in March, directing the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration to compile a “citizenship list” for each state. It also instructed the Postal Service to restrict mailed ballots to those on these lists.
In late May, the Postal Service submitted a proposed rule to enforce this order. A federal judge subsequently blocked the executive order, declaring it unconstitutional. The court stated that only states and Congress hold authority to establish election regulations, not the president.
The appeal for withdrawing the rule was led by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. It was undersigned by eight other Democratic governors from California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. The letter, referencing the judge’s decision, requested the withdrawal of the Postal Service’s proposed rule to fulfill Trump’s order. It stated, “Far from ensuring integrity in federal elections, the Proposed Rule would undermine trust in elections, needlessly complicate voting processes, arbitrarily disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, and undermine states’ constitutional role in ensuring free and fair elections.”
Governors argued that the rule could authorize “unilateral power to refuse to deliver their ballots if a state refuses to collaborate with President Trump’s unlawful directives.” The Postal Service has not yet responded to inquiries for comments.
The rule was filed in the Federal Register after a separate lawsuit against Trump’s executive order did not succeed in blocking the rule since the administration had not yet started implementing the order. Democratic and civil rights groups involved in that lawsuit have appealed the ruling.
Resistance to the executive order also came from postal workers. Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers union, stated that their role was not to “verify voter eligibility” but to “move mail from one destination to the next.”
This order marked Trump’s second executive action seeking election oversight since his return to office. The courts have already blocked his previous order, which aimed to require documented proof of citizenship for voter registration.
Both executive orders concentrate on Trump’s concerns regarding voting by noncitizens—a practice that state and local investigations have found to be infrequent. Trump also expressed concerns over mail voting as a potential fraud source, while using this method himself.
There is no evidence of widespread issues with mail voting. It remains popular among Democrats and Republicans. A 2025 Brookings Institution report revealed that mail voting fraud cases were negligible, at approximately four cases per 10 million mail ballots.
Leave a Reply