Postmaster general says USPS won't deliver mail ballots if states don't give Trump admin voter rolls
Source: Democracy Docket News
June 24, 2026
Postmaster General David Steiner told senators that, under a new proposed rule, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will not deliver mail ballots unless states hand over their voter lists to the Trump administration. Under our proposed regulation, no, Steiner said during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday after being asked whether USPS would refuse to deliver election mail if states refuse to divulge their voter lists. We would tell the state that we need the manifest, Steiner added. Steiners alarming answer is yet more evidence that the Postal Service is following through with President Donald Trumps sweeping attack on mail voting and breaking from its decades-long history as a neutral, nonpartisan carrier of U.S. election mail.
The USPSs new proposal, which Postal workers have denounced, stems from Trumps March 2026 executive order that, in part, demanded USPS only send mail ballots to voters on lists created and controlled by the federal government. Specifically, the proposal would require state election officials to send USPS a list of voters who have requested a mail-in or absentee ballot at least 30 days before ballots are sent out under state law. If voters arent on the list, they will not receive a ballot.
If implemented, it would effectively create a federal registration list for absentee voters. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told Steiner that the proposal would coerce states particularly states like Oregon, where mail voting is the default form of voting into providing the Trump administration with sensitive voter data. This is basically a back-door way for the federal government to get voting information that states control under the U.S. Constitution, Peters said.
Youre telling the states, Give the federal government this information trust the federal government, trust the Trump administration, well take good care of these and if you dont do it, you cant mail absentee ballots. You are going to make a decision that people cannot vote by mail, the senator added. Thats unacceptable. Steiners admission Wednesday conflicted with a separate rule the USPS adopted under his watch last year, which stated that the independent agency does not administer elections, establish the rules or deadlines that govern elections, or determine whether or how election jurisdictions utilize the mail.
Read more: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/postmaster-general-steiner-postal-service-will-not-deliver-mail-ballots-state-voter-rolls/
uncle ray
(3,377 posts)oldmanlynn
(879 posts)If its a Democratic voter ballot, they want to refuse that one get with the program. Donald Trump isnt doing this to make things nice in the Postal Service. Hes trying to cheat the system.
dem4decades
(14,646 posts)patphil
(9,332 posts)Once politics come into the process, the Postal Service could be instructed to intercept and give to the government any and all mail being sent or received by the government's "enemies".
It is the job of the USPS to deliver the mail
not to interfere in elections.
2024 showed us when the likes of Musk, Thiel, Eaton Corp., Palintr, Digital Janitor,
Ballot Proof, the Federalist Society, Republicans, and GOP Secs. of State, get ahold of voter d-bases the outcome is a done deal. Because they then know what
#s they need to happen.
bluestarone
(22,544 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(157,235 posts)yellow dahlia
(6,871 posts)BUT!
Did today's order by a judge that says the grifter can't issue an executive order re: elections, citing Separation of Powers, apply to mail-in ballots also? I just caught wind of the judge's order being discussed on MSNOW. I heard it applies to an order requiring proof of citizenship.
yankee87
(2,888 posts)I realize what is going on may or may not come through, but we always fight from behind.
If we ever get control again, non stop investigations and the toughest penalties available.
FakeNoose
(42,985 posts)He cannot pick and choose which mail he wants to deliver.
FUCK HIM and the horse he rode in on.
ShazzieB
(23,069 posts)Unfortunately.
What I want to know is, have law suits (or A lawsuit with multiple plaintiffs) been filed yet?
eppur_se_muova
(42,903 posts)Republicans rigged it so a Dem POTUS can't easily fire their boy. That has to be done by a board, and the board is packed with their people. One of the mistakes Biden made was not flushing DeJoy fast enough, and appointing his own people to the Board of Governors. But I think GOPers may have blocked his nominations, too.
Bobstandard
(2,430 posts)Even if a court decrees the mail must go through, the Postmasters stance gives MAGA postal employees the green light to slow or refuse to deliver mail in ballots, either going to or coming from the voter. At the very least, trust in the Post Office is so questionable that many will decide not to mail and may then be unable to vote in personwhich is being made more and more difficult in many Democratic leaning regions.
0rganism
(25,763 posts)Then at the next step, if the appellate court waxes it too, the ruling gets appealed again. and so it slowly winds its way up the layers of the court system. At every higher layer, the odds of one or more Trump appointees making the decision increases, all the way up to the SCOTUS, who will take the case in some expedited fashion to give F47 the nod. "All okay," they'll say. By then, it will be late September.
And even if the appeals stall out somehow, there's no guarantee the USPS does what it's required to do anyway. So much of our planning has taken a benevolent (or at least neutral) federal government as premise. We were never prepared to deal with an outright criminal administration.
Those of us living in VBM states, well, we'd best get to figuring out how we're gonna vote in the upside-down.
MadameButterfly
(4,280 posts)Who would trust it? It could also end the postal system. Why would you trust that either? It's an arm of Trump now.
AverageOldGuy
(4,360 posts)Bengus81
(10,568 posts)This BULLSHIT can not stand..........
intheflow
(30,304 posts)Elias has an excellent record against the regime. I don't see this claim standing.
LiberalArkie
(19,969 posts)ShazzieB
(23,069 posts)In some states, voter registration doesn't include declaring a party affiliation. That is the case in Illinois, where I live. I know we're not the only state that does this.
In states that don't register voters by party affiliation, postal workers would have to open every sealed envelope to find out who's voting which way.
Uncle Joe
(65,991 posts)Thanks for the thread BumRushDaShow
Qutzupalotl
(15,879 posts)One count for each ballot he impedes. That could add up fast.
SamuelAdams
(342 posts)Each state has their own deadline for requesting mail ballots. Now states would have to move deadlines 30 days to accommodate the federal government. Is there software that can quickly send the voter list of each area to each mail carrier? There must be hundreds of thousands mail carriers who would each need a lost for their small area. There are tens of millions Americans who vote by mail. That could take awhile and have massive mistakes.
Baitball Blogger
(52,891 posts)bluestarone
(22,544 posts)DO what they say they will do. We thought Dejoy would be the problem? Hell TSFD owns ALL the crooked bastards in our country!! Be ready nto fight, if we want Democracy. They are willing to destroy us. THIS is so fucked up.
LilElf70
(1,706 posts)Not that it really matter to Trump.
WTF is going on to our country?
Bayard
(30,645 posts)States control elections. trump has no business sticking his dirty nose in them in any way, shape, or form. He is determined to use every trick in the book to remain in power. Things are going to be out of control corrupt.
He is afraid of us.....
flashman13
(2,631 posts)liable for their actions on behalf of Trump's criminal enterprise. It must be made clear to Steiner that he will be held responsible for actions that encumber states ability to conduct elections as they see fit.
MissouriDem47
(454 posts)The courts will not allow the USPS to become partisan.
SpankMe
(3,805 posts)IcyPeas
(25,977 posts)I'm so sick of this trump family regime
SSJVegeta
(3,418 posts)Hassler
(4,986 posts)to mail in my ballot as long as Swamp Creature is in WH. Strictly County Dropbox.
bluestarone
(22,544 posts)Do NOT mail that ballot. Drop it off in person.
Hassler
(4,986 posts)The USPS will be hurting Chump's base.
bluestarone
(22,544 posts)They are that dumb, so be it.
AllaN01Bear
(30,100 posts)liberalgunwilltravel
(1,307 posts)This shit will continue. Its getting close to the time to see just how many martyrs are willing to sacrifice themselves to suck up to Trump and his fascists. I suspect not many.
EnergizedLib
(3,209 posts)Demnation
(444 posts)Talitha
(8,218 posts)Hmmm.... a concept of an idea of a rule.
Pound sand, Postmaster General David Steiner.
BumRushDaShow
(173,480 posts)Didn't get chance to hunt it down and include in the OP comments.
Here it is -
Ballot Mail for Federal Elections
bob4460
(413 posts)N/T
BumRushDaShow
(173,480 posts)Response to BumRushDaShow (Original post)
bob4460 This message was self-deleted by its author.
sakabatou
(46,534 posts)dave99
(537 posts)Hope he enjoys orange
Harker
(18,323 posts)would be aghast.
BumRushDaShow
(173,480 posts)and would buy stamps there (they stocked most of the commemorative ones too).

Only Post Office without a U.S. flag out front.
James48
(5,272 posts)Turbineguy
(40,285 posts)to have the Democrats get rid of the Post Office, saving the republicans the trouble.
Karasu
(2,300 posts)yourout
(8,911 posts)Marcuse
(9,143 posts)"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor fascist dictators trying to rig elections shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.