WA mail-in voting would change this year under proposed USPS rule, officials say
Washington officials are condemning a proposed U.S. Postal Service mail-in ballot rule that would alter how federal elections are run in the state.
Supporters argue the suggested change, which would include strict barcode requirements, is needed for federal-election security. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs says that it amounts to an effort by the Trump administration to force states to comply with a federal system “that is clearly unconstitutional.”
“We have a right to run elections as we see fit,” Hobbs, a Democrat, told McClatchy in a Tuesday call. “That is what the founders wanted.”
The deadline for public comments on the proposed USPS rule is July 2.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an emailed statement that the administration will continue upholding the security and safety of U.S. elections under the agenda President Donald Trump was elected to enact.
“This campaign pledge from the President is why millions of Americans sent him back to the White House,” Jackson continued.
Trump has regularly said, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud led to his 2020 presidential election defeat.
The proposed USPS rule follows Trump’s executive order issued in late March that asked the postal service to start rulemaking on absentee and mail-in ballot services; critics warn the order would hamper mail-in voting. A federal judge opted against blocking the executive order’s mail-in provisions May 28, according to CNBC. It would mean the USPS would move from recommending ballot-mail practices to mandating them for the purposes of federal elections.
Jackson said the administration believes the executive order will be implemented ahead of the election in November.
USPS did not return McClatchy’s request for comment.
What would the USPS rule do?
Under the new USPS rule, states would need to send in the names of voters who receive absentee and mail-in ballots. Barcodes would also be linked to their outbound and return-ballot mail envelopes.
This rule would not be applicable to primaries or overseas and military voter ballots but would apply to special, general and runoff federal elections.
The postal service says that the rule would assist in comparing the number of ballots mailed with the number of ballots received “to detect potential issues meriting further investigation.” Such standards would also require an official “Election Mail” logo on envelopes.
States would keep full control of who can or can’t vote by mail in federal elections, USPS says.
In a Friday news release, Hobbs called the rule unneeded and said that it amounts to federal overreach that jeopardizes eligible voters’ rights and states’ power to run elections how they see fit. He likened it to an attempt by the federal administration to “exercise authority they don’t have.”
Hobbs told McClatchy that it appears as though USPS will only approve ballots on a list that Washington state provides. But, he added, questions remain: How secure is the postal service’s system? How often will it update its list and how long will a system update take? How will the service process such ballots?
Then there’s the cost, Hobbs added. There would be new expenses under the rule because return envelopes would have to feature unique barcodes on them.
“Everything that you do on an envelope costs money, so I’m very concerned about what’s going on and what they’re going to do,” Hobbs said. “They’re basically controlling how we do vote-by-mail in the state of Washington.”
Although it would be difficult, it wouldn’t be impossible to implement such a rule ahead of the general election, said Stuart Holmes, Washington’s director of elections.
Those ballots haven’t yet been printed, Hobbs said.
Still, Hobbs believes this would involve a deeper conversation with USPS about how it secures lists, and he said the state would take legal action if the rule were to be imposed.
Holmes said the rule would effectively require a redesign of all Washington election envelopes so that an intelligent mail barcode could be unique going to and returning from each voter. That would be a major shift with “lots of different design requirements,” Holmes said.
“We’d have to go through the United States Postal Service mailpiece design analyst with all of that,” Holmes added.
According to the Brookings Institution think tank, roughly four of every 10 million votes by mail are fraudulent. The institution says such fraud is a “very rare” issue that makes up 0.000043% of all mail ballots that get cast.
Hobbs said the state’s elections system — in which regular voter-data maintenance is conducted and every signature is checked — is “very secure.”
“This notion that our elections are fraudulent or rife with fraud is just simply not true,” he said.
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