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USPS to require states to ID mail voters
The U.S. Postal Service would require states to provide lists of voters who received mailed ballots as part of new rules proposed on Friday, one day after a federal judge declined to immediately block President Donald Trump's related executive order.
The U.S. Postal Service has proposed new rules that detail in part how the Trump administration intends to carry out its contested mail ballot executive order.
If approved, the plan would create new barriers for mail voting and new hurdles for election officials.
USPS mail-in voter list
A mailbox with American flags in the background, as a woman's hands return a mail-in election ballot. Illustrative editorial taken in Vista, CA / USA on October 8, 2020. (Getty Images)
Big picture view:
Under the proposal, each state would be required to send the federal government a list of all registered voters that have received mail-in and absentee ballots in key federal elections.
The proposal was reportedly published Friday in a Federal Register notice, and would require states to give the USPS the names and barcodes tied to their mail-in ballot for federal elections.
The requirement would not apply to primary elections.
Dig deeper:
If the states don’t submit the list or you're not on the list, then the Postal Service could reject delivering a mail ballot to that person, explained Dion Nissembaum with Votebeat.
The proposed order does not specify what happens if someone isn’t on the list or if the lists aren’t received in time, he added.
Local perspective:
"The other part of (the proposed order)," Nissenbaum continued when speaking with LiveNOW from FOX on Sunday, "is that local elections offices now have to create basically new requirements by the federal government to put new barcodes on each of these ballots going in and coming out, and this could create a lot of hurdles and new financial burdens on local elections offices that really aren’t set up to do this – especially in the short timeline before the upcoming November election."
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Trump voter reforms
The backstory:
In March, Trump signed an executive order that sought to direct the Department of Homeland Security to compile a list of all adult U.S. citizens living in each state and direct USPS to deliver mail ballots only to individuals appearing on the lists.
Last week, a Washington-based U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols declined to block that order but did not say whether it was lawful, just that the timing of the injunction against the order was off.
READ MORE: Judge refuses to block Trump order to limit mail voting
The other side:
President Trump’s executive order on limiting mail-in ballots has been met with lawsuits and opposition from postal workers. The postal union has objected to the idea of mail carriers policing ballots.
What's next:
A comment period of 30 days is in effect before the USPS proposed order would move forward.
Meanwhile:
Those voting by mail in primary elections aren’t affected, and a federal case in Boston this week is challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s order, and could potentially freeze it.
Mail voting in the US
Dig deeper:
Mail voting has existed for more than a century and had steadily been increasing in popularity in both Democratic- and Republican-led states until 2020, when Trump started to target the method, levying baseless claims of mass fraud. It has now become less popular among Republicans.
Studies have found noncitizen voting and mail fraud voting to be rare.
By the numbers:
For example, research from Brookings Institute found mail voting fraud accounted for only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast, or about four cases out of every 10 million mail votes.
The Source: Information in this article was taken from the USPS proposed order, previous FOX Television Station reporting and interview comments from Dion Nissembaum with Votebeat. Background information was taken from The Associated Press. This story was reported from Detroit.