Postmaster General David Steiner told a Senate committee Wednesday that, if a proposed rule is adopted, the U.S. Postal Service would withhold mail ballots from states that do not hand over to the federal government lists of people who have requested absentee or mail ballots.
Watch Steiner’s remarks in the video player above.
Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, asked Steiner if the Postal Service would deliver ballots to a state’s voters if that state refuses to turn over its absentee voter roll.
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“Under our proposed regulation? No,” Steiner said, adding that the Postal Service would “tell the state that we need the manifest.”
The proposed USPS rule will ask states to provide the agency with a list of people who have requested a mail-in or absentee ballot for an election. “This provision will help determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts,” the proposed rule states.
The proposal cites President Donald Trump’s March executive order that seeks to tighten mail voting rules and create eligible voter lists, even though the Constitution explicitly grants states the authority to run elections, while Congress has a limited oversight role in adopting election regulations. Despite the president’s own use of mail ballots in past elections, he has called the voting method “cheating.”
