Nine Democratic governors have urged the U.S. Postal Service to abandon a proposed rule designed to implement an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March that would create a federal list of eligible voters and potentially restrict mail-in ballot delivery.
The governors sent a letter Thursday calling on the Postal Service to withdraw the rule it filed in late May. The effort was organized by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and included governors from California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The proposed rule stems from Trump’s March executive order, which directs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration to create a “citizenship list” for each state. Under the order, the Postal Service would be required to limit mailed ballots to those on these federal lists.
The governors’ timing is significant because a federal judge has already blocked Trump’s executive order, declaring it unconstitutional. The judge ruled that only states and Congress have the power to set election rules, not the president. Despite this legal setback, the Postal Service proceeded with its proposed rulemaking process.
In their six-page letter, the governors argued that the proposed rule would undermine elections rather than protect them. “Far from ensuring integrity in federal elections,” they wrote, “the Proposed Rule would undermine trust in elections, needlessly complicate voting processes, arbitrarily disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, and undermine states’ constitutional role in ensuring free and fair elections.” The governors also contended that the rule would grant the Postal Service “unilateral power to refuse to deliver their ballots if a state refuses to collaborate with President Trump’s unlawful directives.”
The proposed rule would require states to provide the Postal Service with voter names, addresses, and unique ballot barcodes for federal elections. Postmaster General David Steiner confirmed in June testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that under the proposed regulation, the Postal Service would refuse to deliver mail-in ballots from states that do not hand over lists of people who requested absentee or mail ballots.
When asked directly whether the Postal Service would deliver ballots if a state refused to turn over its absentee voter list, Steiner answered, “No.” The postmaster general characterized the measure as part of routine efforts to ensure ballots are delivered “securely, efficiently, and accurately,” but Senate Democrats lambasted the proposal during the hearing as unconstitutional and “another backdoor way of trying to influence this election.”
The proposed rule has not been limited to resistance from governors. The American Postal Workers union, the workforce that would be tasked with implementing these measures, has raised concerns about the proposal. Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers union, previously stated that their job was not to “verify voter eligibility” but to “move mail from one destination to the next.”
This is the second executive order Trump has signed seeking federal oversight of elections since returning to office. His first order, which has also been blocked by the courts, sought to require people to show documented proof of citizenship to register to vote. Both orders center on Trump’s focus on voting by noncitizens, which studies and investigations by state and local authorities have found to be exceedingly rare. According to a 2025 Brookings Institution report, mail voting fraud is minimal, occurring at a rate of approximately four cases per ten million mail ballots cast.
Trump has also repeatedly raised concerns about mail-in voting as a source of fraud, despite personal use of the method himself. There is no evidence of any widespread problems with mail voting, which has become increasingly popular among both Democrats and Republicans in recent elections.
The legal challenges to the Trump order and the Postal Service proposal have been mounting. At least five lawsuits have challenged the executive order, and some cases initially stalled because the administration had not yet attempted to implement the policy. However, after the Postal Service filed its proposed rule, plaintiffs have renewed their legal arguments. Democratic and civil rights groups that filed an earlier lawsuit have appealed a judge’s decision not to immediately block the order.
The governors’ letter, submitted as an official comment in the Postal Service’s rulemaking process, represents a unified state-level pushback against what they view as an unconstitutional federal intrusion into election administration. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the proposed rule “weaponizing the U.S. Postal System to interfere with American elections,” adding that free and fair elections form the foundation of democracy and urging the Postmaster General to reject Trump’s latest effort to influence elections.
The Postal Service has not immediately responded to requests for comment on the governors’ letter. The agency has established universal service obligations to all Americans, a principle governors say serves as a cornerstone of free and fair elections. The proposed rule now faces potential withdrawal by the Postal Service or continued legal challenges in federal court as the November midterm elections approach.