The United States Postal Service (USPS) proposed a new rule on June 2, 2026 that, if enacted, will change the USPS from a neutral facilitator of ballot deliveries to a gatekeeper who determines who gets a ballot and who doesn’t. The proposed rule follows an executive order (EO) that Convicted Felon/Sexual Abuser/President Trump issued on March 31, 2026 “to enhance election integrity via the United States Mail.” The EO requires the Secretary of Homeland security to create lists of verified citizens over the age of 18 and send them to the states. The order also requires states to submit voter lists to the federal government. Then USPS would have to check that ballot mailings match the voter information supplied by the states before processing the ballots.
The rule thus allows the USPS to withhold the delivery of ballots to voters who live in states that have refused to turn over their voter rolls to Trump’s federal government.
The rule would also mandate a redesign of ballots.
Trump has launched an all-out assault on voting rights in the U.S.
This latest USPS proposed rule is part of Trump’s efforts to tamper with elections nationally to advantage Republicans.
He has ordered Republicans to gerrymander their states’ congressional districts to give Republicans an unfair advantage by adding more “safe” Republican seats and eliminating Democratic seats, and in particular eliminating seats held by Black elected members of Congress. He has had the FBI raid election offices in Fulton county, Georgia. He’s had election data and images of ballots seized in Arizona. He’s demanded ballots in Michigan, and in May he expanded his election inquiries to the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, according to the Washington Post.
He is using long-debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud to take action to intervene in U.S. elections and make voting, and especially voting by mail, more difficult. He has long telegraphed the idea to Republicans of seizing control over elections to cement one-party rule. In July of 2024, he told an audience at an event put on by Turning Point Action that if they voted for him that November, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.” In February, 2026, he told Republicans they needed to “nationalize the voting” in future elections.
Trump has installed voter-fraud conspiracy theorist sycophants in key positions in the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies. ProPublica found that
“75 career officials who once held roles at federal agencies related to election integrity and safety are gone. Two dozen appointees — including many who either actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote or are associates of such people — have been hired to replace them. And once-fringe actors now have access to vast powers.”
False claims about the security of elections at the state level are now coming from the federal government itself.
Trump’s actions track closely with the playbook authoritarians have used in other democratic countries, like Hungary, that have descended into authoritarianism.
The steps in the playbook are:
- Lay the groundwork by spreading false election narratives;
- Install loyalists who act on those false narratives;
- Rewrite the rules and weaponize the executive branch against the opposition and the existing systems;
- Create an intimidating environment around voting to depress turnout, and
- Attack the count and certification
A fuller analysis of the USPS’s proposed new rule to control mailing of ballots is here.
The public can comment on the proposed rule. Comments must be received on or before July 2, 2026.
Mail or deliver written comments on the proposed rule to:
Director, Product Classification
U.S. Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 4446,
Washington, DC 20260-5015
Comments must contain the name and address of the commenter. You can also email your comments to: PCFederalRegister@usps.gov. Use the subject line “Ballot Mail.”
Here is a link to an online letter- writing campaign to oppose the new rule, posted by Amanda Gonzalez, a Democratic candidate for Colorado Secretary of State.