Postal Service takes another step toward implementing Trump’s anti-mail voting order

Step by step, the Trump administration is moving forward with implementing President Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting executive order — despite an expert consensus that the order is unconstitutional and ongoing efforts to block it in court. 

In a notice filed Thursday in federal court, the administration said the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has begun the process of creating a new records system to track mail ballots.

In a proposed rule published earlier this month, USPS said it would require states to send it information about voters who request mail-in or absentee ballots for federal elections. Voting rights advocates have warned that the rule could disrupt mail voting and give the federal government unprecedented power over a process traditionally run by states.

The new filing is not the final rule. But it shows USPS is laying the groundwork to collect and maintain records related to mail-in and absentee ballots while multiple lawsuits challenging Trump’s order continue.

And it comes the same day the administration disclosed a separate DHS memo showing that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is on track to deliver citizenship-list infrastructure to states by June 30.

Together, the filings show the administration is continuing to build out both sides of Trump’s order: a citizenship-list system for states and a USPS records system connected to mail ballot delivery.

“Earlier today, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552a(r), the Postal Service has provided advance notice of a proposed new General Privacy Act System of Records (‘SORN’) to coincide with its proposal to amend the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), regarding the transmission of mail-in or absentee ballots for federal elections,” the filing states.

In plain English, a system of records notice is a formal notice agencies must file when they plan to keep a new set of records about people. Here, the records system is tied to USPS’ proposed mail ballot rule.

According to the filing, USPS gave advance notice to two congressional committees and the Office of Management and Budget. The Postal Service will next send the notice to the Federal Register for publication.

The records system will not take effect unless USPS finalizes its proposed mail ballot rule.

“If the Postal Service does not issue any final rule in connection with that rulemaking, then the System of Record will not take effect,” the filing states.

Trump’s March executive order directs USPS to send mail ballots only to voters on approved lists submitted by states. Democratic groups, voting rights organizations and state officials have sued* to block the order, arguing that the president has no constitutional authority to rewrite election rules and that the order risks disenfranchising eligible voters in the midterms.

The proposed rule has already drawn legal and labor backlash. The NAACP has asked a federal court to block USPS from enforcing the rule, arguing it violates a 2021 settlement requiring the Postal Service to prioritize timely election mail delivery through 2028. 

The American Postal Workers Union has also condemned the proposal as an “unconstitutional attack on the millions of Americans who vote by mail.”

*The Democratic plaintiffs in this case are represented by Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG firm chair, Marc Elias, is the founder of Democracy Docket.