1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

The Trump administration’s highly aggressive efforts to obtain state voter rolls has, at least so far, failed spectacularly, losing in 9 out of 9 court fights. But as such federal efforts continue, there’s apparently a new twist on the broader gambit. The New York Times reported two weeks ago on a proposed rule, published in the Federal Register, that would allow the U.S. Postal Service to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that fail to turn over voter rolls to the Trump administration. As bizarre as this might sound, states apparently would compile lists of mail voters under the plan, with the expectation that USPS employees would use the lists to screen ballots for eligibility. Voters in the states that failed to meet the White House’s demands would be out of luck. “Screening mail ballots for voter eligibility,” the Times added, “would amount to an unprecedented, and potentially unconstitutional, involvement of the federal government in the administration of elections.” This week, ahead of Postmaster General David Steiner’s scheduled appearance before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, all 47 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus signed on to a joint letter calling on the Postal Service to abandon these plans, making the case that the proposed changes would “fundamentally upend” the role of the USPS, transforming it “into a federal election administration agency — with frightening authorities to disenfranchise Americans.” Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan spearheaded the effort, and he pressed Steiner on the plans Wednesday. The postmaster general, a Donald Trump appointee, confirmed in his testimony that under Trump-imposed regulations, the U.S. Postal Service will not mail ballots if a state has not handed over its voting rolls.