Washington, D.C. • Postmaster General David Steiner said at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that under a new proposed rule, the Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that decline to hand over sensitive data about voters to the federal government.
The Postal Service’s proposed rule was released this month and is in line with President Donald Trump’s March executive order intended to restrict voting by mail. That order, which faces multiple court challenges, seeks to create state-by-state lists of citizens to help determine who is eligible to vote and calls on the Postal Service not to distribute mail ballots to those not on state lists.
Earlier this year, Steiner told The New York Times that the Postal Service would defer to the courts on the legality of Trump’s executive order and that the service would “absolutely” continue to deliver mail-in ballots.
But in his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, Steiner said that the proposed rule would in effect halt the delivery of mail-in ballots in states that do not comply with Trump’s demands.
He was asked by Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s top Democrat: “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 rule?”
“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Steiner responded.
Steiner reaffirmed at the hearing that the Postal Service would follow any court orders governing voting by mail.
Withholding some mail services in states where voters rely heavily on mail balloting could affect millions of Americans.
Trump has tried repeatedly to assert federal control over voting and fiercely opposes voting by mail. He has repeatedly made baseless claims that mail-in ballots allow for widespread election fraud favoring Democrats.
The Postal Service’s proposed rule appears to establish broad authority for the agency to intervene in the vote-by-mail process. It proposes that Postal Service employees screen mail-in ballots for eligibility using lists of voters provided by the states, and it requires states to adhere to new design rules for the ballots.
Democrats and voting-rights groups have argued that the proposed rule is clear evidence that the Trump administration is trying to intrude on elections, which the Constitution gives the states the power to administer.
Democrats fear that the president is using his push to assert control to try to give Republicans an electoral advantage, something Trump has not denied. At the Senate hearing Wednesday, they repeatedly accused Steiner of doing Trump’s bidding.
“Please push back on being a pawn in this authoritarian playbook,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. “The Postal Service is one of the most important institutions in our country. Don’t taint it with the obsession of this one man.”
The regulation is currently in a 30-day public-comment period that started earlier this month. The executive order calls on the Postal Service to issue a final rule by the end of July.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.