The U.S. Postal Service has proposed new rules that lay out how it would implement President Donald Trump’s executive order dealing with mail-in voting.
Among other provisions, states would have to send the feds a list of every voter who’ll be getting a ballot in the mail for some federal elections; there are also rules about the kinds of barcodes envelopes would need.
There are legal challenges to the president’s executive order; a judge last week declined to block the order, saying it was premature, while another federal judge in Boston is hearing arguments Tuesday in a separate case.
Full conversation
DION NISSENBAUM: Good morning, Mark. How are you?
MARK BRODIE: Doing all right. Thanks for being here. So, let’s take a quick step back. What exactly, let’s remind everybody what the president’s executive order on mail-in voting was about, like what did it say?
DION NISSENBAUM: Right. So, the president issued an executive order in March that sought to lay out a number of efforts to address the concerns he has around voter fraud. And it essentially tried to get the Postal Service to enact new rules that would require each state to submit full lists of everybody that wanted to vote by mail. And it also tries to lay out some uniform standards by which each state has to create these ballots. As you mentioned, barcodes and other things that each state would have to do and the Postal Service would be required to implement.
It also has some requirements for citizenship, but that’s not addressed in the Postal Service regulations.
MARK BRODIE: OK. So, in terms of the lists, is this something that like counties, for example, like in Arizona, each of the 15 counties would have to submit a list to the state, who would then submit a list to the federal government about who is actually getting a ballot?
DION NISSENBAUM: Yeah, the specificities in the order are not exactly clear and it’s created a lot of confusion for local elections officials. What it does sort of spell out is that 60 days before a federal election, this wouldn’t affect primary elections, but before a general election, each state would have to submit a list of everybody that has requested an absentee ballot. And then that would have to be approved by the Postal Service.
And if you’re not on that approved list, it appears to give the Postal Service the ability to deny voters to receive a ballot. Basically, if you’re not on that list, it says that the Postal Service doesn’t have to send you an absentee ballot.
MARK BRODIE: Are there rules laid out for what would constitute someone being disqualified?
DION NISSENBAUM: Well, if you’re not on the list, you’re not, you’re disqualified. So, each state, Arizona, would have to send in a list of everybody that’s requested an absentee ballot 60 days before the election. And if you’re not on that list, then it can be rejected.
So, you know, it’s interesting because a lot of states have rules that, you know, you can request absentee ballots much closer to the election. So, if you have to submit this list 60 days beforehand, and you’re a voter in Arizona that suddenly has a work trip that comes up a month before the election and you need to vote by mail, then this appears to block you from being able to vote absentee.
MARK BRODIE: Are there other provisions in here that could potentially conflict with state laws in various places?
DION NISSENBAUM: Yeah, so the other element of this is that it tries to lay out these uniform standards for each state that would have to be met before you could send out a ballot. So, there’s this requirement for new barcodes, both in the mail that goes to the voter and then in the ballot that goes back to the elections officials.
And talking to local elections officials about this, especially in small counties and rural counties, that could create some new burdens. It certainly creates what people usually refer to as an unfunded federal mandate, that you have to, you know, it’s new costs on every elections agency that the federal government isn’t paying for.
MARK BRODIE: Well, and interestingly, one of the other things that you heard from some folks is that the vendors they work with can’t create the barcodes or don’t have the capacity to do them.
So, like, you know, we’re in what, June now, and by November, these municipalities or counties would have to find new vendors and either end and/or start a new contract with somebody who can do these.
DION NISSENBAUM: Yeah, you know, I think, I think the timeline here for the November election makes this very challenging on a practical level to actually implement. If you’re a small county with a small number of elections officials and you’ve got a vendor that doesn’t have barcodes, you’ve got to try and implement this. And we’re still in the proposal phase of this.
There’s supposed to be 30 days of comment before it even moves forward. And, you know, if you’re under these rules, you’re supposed to notify the federal government 90 days before the federal election if you are going to submit to this new process, and then submit the list within 60 days. It’s just such a tight timeline, it seems on a practical level it’s going to be really difficult for a lot of places to meet.
MARK BRODIE: Right. So, Dion, just a minute or so left here. I mentioned there are a couple different lawsuits going on. Is it possible that these rules could be blocked from taking effect for this election?
DION NISSENBAUM: Yeah, the hearing is underway in Boston right now. I think it’s almost over. It is very possible that the court could block it. You know, one of one of the major issues here is the constitutional question that overrides all of these executive orders issued by the president.
As you probably know, the Constitution bestows upon Congress and the states the ability to regulate elections, not the president. And that’s kind of been an underlying issue here. The courts blocked President Trump’s first executive order on voting because of that issue, and it seems possible that the courts will do the same for this one.
MARK BRODIE: Sure, it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out going forward. All right, that is Dion Nissenbaum, senior national reporter with Votebeat. Dion, thanks so much. I appreciate it.
DION NISSENBAUM: Thanks for having me.
-
Much of rural Arizona could soon be dotted with small "modular" nuclear reactors. -
For three Ukrainian veterans who visited Arizona in late April, the war did not begin with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It began in 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity, also known as Maidan, ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. -
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap said the county attorney and election staff working for the Board of Supervisors are stopping his office from taking control of equipment that rightfully belongs to the Recorder’s Office — but county budget documents tell a different story. -
The actions of the Trump administration have led a lot of people to make a lot of comparisons to other presidencies, or periods of history. -
State lawmakers are facing a few deadlines as they come back to the Capitol this week. June 30 is the end of the fiscal year, so they need to have a new budget in place by then. Before that, though, on June 24, is the deadline for Arizona voters to submit arguments for and against ballot measures.
