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Whistle-Blower: USPS Moving Forward on Trump’s Mail Voting Plan Despite Legal Hurdles
Confirmed
With voting by mail for the midterms set to officially start this week, key parts of the USPS plan for carrying out Trump's directives, including requirements for states to comply, remain blocked for now by a court order in the legal fight over the president's executive order.
Last week, a federal judge in Boston issued a temporary restraining order against USPS after finding that its plan for Trump's order is likely illegal because the mailing agency has no authority to control voting by mail.
Democratic Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, picked up on her original tweet, responding that he had personally discussed overseas military voting with Trump "many times" and said Trump had consistently made clear he did not want to interfere with Americans serving abroad voting by mail.
The president, who has voted by mail himself, defended his directives for USPS and other federal agencies as a way to curb illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens, which many studies and audits show is extremely rare. We discussed legal challenges to the Trump administration's directives for the Postal Service on mail-in voting," Wolf Blitzer said in the correction.
"USPS leadership, it appears, has discarded all best practices as they speed the project to be ready for a September 1 implementation — raising questions about whether catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug," said the disclosure, prepared by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit organization representing the anonymous federal government official with direct knowledge of the Postal Service's development of the new system.
"The continued attacks that we're seeing from the Trump administration [are] really just an effort to get people fearful, to get to stay home, and in many cases, to eliminate what is a valid, safe, secure way for people to be able to make their voices heard and to vote," she said.
The Trump administration has appealed that ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Supreme Court of Appeals, setting up what will likely be another battle at the Supreme Court , which has not yet weighed in on the legality of Trump's directives.
Testing of that new system, however, has been insufficient, according to claims by a whistleblower, outlined in a disclosure that Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut submitted Monday to USPS. Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn joins 'Fox & Friends' to analyze lawsuits filed by 24 states and Washington, D.C. against the United States Postal Service regarding mail-in voting rules.
Background
Postal voting in the United States, also referred to as mail-in voting or vote by mail, is a form of absentee ballot in the United States. A ballot is mailed to the home of a registered voter, who fills it out and returns it by postal mail or drops it off in-person at a secure drop box or voting center.
Wikipedia — Postal voting in the United States (CC BY-SA)
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn joins 'Fox & Friends' to analyze lawsuits filed by 24 states and Washington, D.C. against the United States Postal Service regarding mail-in voting rules.
- "The continued attacks that we're seeing from the Trump administration [are] really just an effort to get people fearful, to get to stay home, and in many cases, to eliminate what is a valid, safe, secure way for…
- We discussed legal challenges to the Trump administration's directives for the Postal Service on mail-in voting," Wolf Blitzer said in the correction.
- Democratic Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, picked up on her original tweet, responding that he had personally discussed overseas military voting with Trump "many times" and said Trump had consistently made clear he did not…
- The Supreme Court in August handed Trump a largely favorable procedural ruling, staying an earlier injunction after finding that the states’ challenge was premature at that stage.
- With voting by mail for the midterms set to officially start this week, key parts of the USPS plan for carrying out Trump's directives, including requirements for states to comply, remain blocked for now by a court…
- Still, the mailing agency has been preparing for months to launch an online portal that would allow state election officials to submit absentee voters' names and ballot envelope barcodes required by the now-blocked rule.
- Testing of that new system, however, has been insufficient, according to claims by a whistleblower, outlined in a disclosure that Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut submitted Monday to USPS.