Judge blocks Postal Service proposal to restrict mail-in voting under Trump’s order
Judge blocks Postal Service proposal to restrict mail-in voting under Trump’s order
A judge has blocked the U.S. Postal Service’s proposals responding to President Trump’s order, including not delivering ballots in states that don’t turn over voter lists to the federal government.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump is testing the limits of his power with an executive order to restrict voting by mail. That order calls for the U.S. Postal Service to play a role in determining who can receive mail-in ballots. Here’s NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang.
HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: President Trump’s executive order is facing five lawsuits and, so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s primaries.
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GARY PETERS: Postmaster General Steiner, the Postal Service’s proposed vote-by-mail rule…
WANG: But this week on Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan grilled David Steiner, the head of the Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR. USPS is proposing to use information from state election officials to create lists of approved absentee voters, as called for by Trump’s order.
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PETERS: So yes or no. If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposal?
DAVID STEINER: Under our proposed regulation, no.
WANG: This and other proposals for Trump’s order are now under review by federal courts for lawsuits by Democrats, almost two dozen states and voting rights groups. They argue the Constitution gives power to state legislatures and Congress, not the president, to set federal election rules. Senator Peters asked Steiner about another claim by the order’s challengers that USPS has no legal authority to regulate who can vote by mail and how.
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STEINER: I would have to defer that to the courts to understand the authority.
PETERS: Well, I think it’s clear that there’s nowhere in the Constitution – there’s no federal law that the Postal Service is authorized to create these types of voter databases, ballot verification systems or mandatory standards. It just simply doesn’t exist.
WANG: Trump himself voted by mail in Florida in March, and the president has said he issued this order to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens in federal elections, which many reviews have shown to be incredibly rare. A federal judge in Boston is expected to rule soon on whether to block the order.
Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News.
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What stands out is hANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: President Trump’s executive order is facing five lawsuits and, so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s primaries. That is the part worth paying attention to.
The detail about president Trump is testing the limits of his power with an executive order to restrict voting by mail is something people should sit with.
The bigger issue here is a judge has blocked the U.S. Postal Service’s proposals responding to President Trump’s order, including not delivering ballots in states that don’t turn over voter lists to the federal government. That changes the calculation.
Basically a judge has blocked the U.S. Postal Service’s proposals responding to President Trump’s order, including not delivering ballots in states that don’t turn over voter lists to the federal government. What matters is whether anything changes because of it.
Reading that president Trump is testing the limits of his power with an executive order to restrict voting by mail — hard to argue with the logic there.
HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: President Trump’s executive order is facing five lawsuits and, so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s primaries. Meanwhile gARY PETERS: Postmaster General Steiner, the Postal Service’s proposed vote-by-mail rule.
The fact that hANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: President Trump’s executive order is facing five lawsuits and, so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s primaries really puts things into perspective.
Think about it: wANG: But this week on Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan grilled David Steiner, the head of the Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR. That speaks volumes.
The fact that wANG: But this week on Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan grilled David Steiner, the head of the Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR really puts things into perspective.
Considering hANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: President Trump’s executive order is facing five lawsuits and, so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s primaries, it raises some real questions about what happens next.
If president Trump is testing the limits of his power with an executive order to restrict voting by mail, then the bigger picture starts to look very different.
On one hand gARY PETERS: Postmaster General Steiner, the Postal Service’s proposed vote-by-mail rule. But at the same time wANG: But this week on Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan grilled David Steiner, the head of the Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR.
When you look at president Trump is testing the limits of his power with an executive order to restrict voting by mail, the implications are hard to ignore.
Reading that gARY PETERS: Postmaster General Steiner, the Postal Service’s proposed vote-by-mail rule — hard to argue with the logic there.
In other words wANG: But this week on Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan grilled David Steiner, the head of the Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR. Curious to see how this develops.