By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Lawmakers urged the U.S. Postal Service on Friday to halt work on new mail-in voting rules, saying they threaten the integrity of the November congressional elections.
“The Postal Service’s continued illegal attempts to turn itself into an election administration agency at the direction of President Trump risks disenfranchising eligible American voters and threatens the integrity of upcoming elections,” wrote Senator Gary Peters of Michigan and the other six Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that oversees the USPS in a letter seen by Reuters.
Late Thursday, President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court to let it enforce the new USPS rule tightening the use of mail-in ballots.
USPS did not immediately comment.
The Democratic senators — Peters and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Ruben Gallego of Arizona — said the effort “will undermine peoples’ faith in the upcoming elections” and cited a whistleblower who warned that USPS’ planned “verification” systems “risk collapsing the absentee ballot system and disenfranchising millions of Americans.”
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has issued an order temporarily preventing the USPS from enforcing the new rule, which it adopted following an executive order by the Republican president to restrict mail-in ballots.
The USPS regulation would impose new voter-specific data and ballot envelope standards, and potentially refuse the delivery of ballots that do not comply, which critics say could disrupt thousands of legitimate votes as the November 3 vote approaches.
Republicans are locked in a tight battle to retain control of Congress in the elections. Critics say restricting mail-in ballots would disproportionately benefit Republicans given that Democratic voters traditionally have been more likely to use mail-in ballots.
Under the new USPS rule, states must provide lists of mail ballot recipients to the postal service and use agency-approved outbound and return ballot mail envelopes outfitted with unique barcodes. The postal service could then refuse to send out ballots that do not comply with the new standards or are associated with voters who do not appear on the lists.
Trump, who signed his executive order targeting mail-in ballots in March, has for years cast doubt on their security, although evidence of voter fraud is rare. Trump has made false claims of widespread fraud in U.S. elections, including about his 2020 loss to former Democratic President Joe Biden.
(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Nick Zieminski and Rod Nickel)
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