A drop box for mail-in ballots is located outside the Shelby County Courthouse Annex in Shelbyville, Kentucky, ahead of the May 2024 primary election. (Photo by McKenna Horsley/Kentucky Lantern)
The U.S. Postal Service will not deliver mail-in ballots to states that refuse to release voter lists under a proposed rule, the agency’s chief executive said Wednesday, angering Democrats who warn the decision would disenfranchise voters.
Postmaster General David Steiner defended the rule at a Senate hearing and dismissed allegations that the Postal Service acted politically after President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting mail-in voting in March.
“If a state refuses to turn over its absentee ballot list to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail its ballots under this proposed rule?” Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, asked Steiner.
“According to our proposed regulation, no,” replied Steiner.
Steiner’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was the clearest acknowledgment yet by a federal official that the rule poses a threat turn postal voting on its head across the country.
If the rule goes into effect and Democratic-led states refuse to comply, the requirements would effectively limit mail-in voting in November’s midterm elections to Republican-led states to decide control of Congress.
The postal service submitted the rule after Trump ordered Steiner requires states to provide the agency with lists of expected postal voters as a condition for delivering ballots.
Trump cancels signing ceremony
The executive order is one of several steps the Trump administration has taken this year to influence the conduct of elections. Additionally, the Justice Department has sued states to obtain confidential voter data.
This underscores Trump’s keen interest when Steiner spoke with the president on Wednesday morning abruptly canceled a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol to sign a bipartisan housing bill over the Senate’s refusal to pass the SAVE America Act. The law requires voters to provide documents such as a birth certificate or passport proving their citizenship.
“Now we have this new rule that you put in place that says states have to submit their ballots and you, the U.S. Postal Service, are going to decide who is eligible to mail their ballots,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan. “It’s just another attempt to influence this election through the back door.”
Slotkin said Trump’s decision to cancel the housing bill signing shows the extent of this president’s obsession with voting.
pass on names
Each state would be required to provide the names of residents expected to vote by mail. Additionally, eight states and Washington, DC conduct elections by mailing all voters a ballot, meaning election officials would be required to provide information about each voter. These states include California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington.
Trump and his aides argue that the restrictions are necessary to combat very occasional voter turnout by non-citizens. Democrats and voting rights groups have sued the order, arguing it is an unconstitutional assertion of the president’s authority over state elections. No judge has stopped it yet.
Steiner tried to stay out of the controversy, responding to a question by saying the Postal Service would comply with a court order blocking the rule if one were issued. When asked about the legal authority underlying the rule, he said he would have to “leave that to the courts to understand the authority.”
Steiner, who became postmaster general in July 2025, characterized the rule as focused primarily on best practices for election mail, a description that understates the scope of the proposal, which postal experts call unprecedented.
“I am not a political person and the Postal Service is not a political organization,” Steiner said.
Democrats are calling on Steiner to withdraw control
Democrats expressed acute disagreement with Steiner, accusing him of caving in to Trump’s efforts to exert more control over the election. Steiner answers to the USPS Board of Governors, not the president, his critics say he is unsafe the independence of the agency through compliance with the implementing regulation.
All Senate Democrats, as well as two independents who caucus with the party, signed one on Tuesday Letter to Steiner urged him to withdraw the rule. The letter warns that aside from the rule’s legal and constitutional problems, it is impossible for state and local election officials to comply with its requirements.
“The proposed regulation requires the Postal Service to establish an entirely new system and database to process and transmit millions of mail-in ballots, secure and accessible to every American election official, just months before a general election,” the letter said.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Republican senators mostly abandoned the mail-in voting rule and instead focused on the official topic, the Postal Service’s finances. But Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, accused Democrats of hypocrisy for supporting the For the People Act in the past.
The sweeping bill, introduced the last time Democrats controlled Congress, would have required states to offer same-day voter registration and expand mail-in voting. Opponents said it was a nationalized election.
“Three years later, they’re all saying, ‘It’s outrageous that President Trump is trying to nationalize elections.’ No, he’s not, he’s trying to get rid of election fraud,” Moreno said, adding that Democrats have now “dug up the Constitution from their bottom desk drawer.”
“Should we get back to the mail stuff now?” Moreno said.
“Absolutely,” Steiner replied.
