{"id":40156,"date":"2026-09-11T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=40156"},"modified":"2026-09-11T10:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:00:28","slug":"pappas-fights-back-on-trumps-executive-order-limiting-mail-in-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/09\/11\/pappas-fights-back-on-trumps-executive-order-limiting-mail-in-voting\/","title":{"rendered":"Pappas Fights Back on Trump\u2019s Executive Order Limiting Mail-In Voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

9\/10\/26 – In response to President Donald Trump\u2019s Executive Order 14399 seeking to exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), co-chair of the Congressional Postal Caucus,\u00a0<\/strong>led 99 members in calling on the Postmaster General to revoke a Postal Service rule codifying the order. In addition to that,\u00a0Pappas joined a bipartisan coalition<\/strong>\u00a0in filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the matter of\u00a0United States Postal Service, et al., v. State of California, et al.<\/em>, a lawsuit brought by a coalition of State Attorneys General against the U.S. Postal Service.<\/p>\n

One-third of Americans are expected to vote by mail in the upcoming midterm elections\u2014a voting practice Donald Trump himself used as recently as\u00a0August 2026<\/a>, when the president voted in Florida\u2019s Republican primary. A\u00a02025 Brookings Institution study<\/a>\u00a0found an average of just four cases of voter fraud for every 10 million mail-in ballots cast \u2014 and that states using universal mail-in voting have among the lowest fraud rates in the country.<\/p>\n

Letter to Postmaster General David P. Steiner:<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08) l<\/strong>ed 97 colleagues in calling on Postmaster General David P. Steiner to revoke a Postal Service rule that codifies President Trump’s Executive Order targeting vote-by-mail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence is clear: voting by mail is safe, effective, and helps to ensure everyone is able to execute their constitutional right to vote. USPS has played an essential role in elections for generations \u2013 and it is our fear that this final rule risks harming the democratic process and severely damaging USPS\u2019s relationship with the millions of Americans who rely on USPS to deliver ballots every election cycle,\u201d\u00a0the members wrote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lawmakers warn that if the rule survives legal challenge, it would carry real consequences: disrupting operations for tens of thousands of USPS employees, creating new obstacles for tens of millions of voters who rely on mail-in ballots, and further eroding public trust in the electoral process.<\/p>\n

Amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the matter of United States Postal Service, et al., v. State of California, et al.:<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Congressman Pappas\u00a0<\/strong>joined a court filing challenging the legality of President Donald Trump\u2019s Executive Order 14399. The court case challenges a Final Rule issued by the USPS pursuant to Trump\u2019s directive that imposes unconstitutional and unworkable restrictions on mail-in voting, including requiring states to provide a \u201ccitizenship verification list\u201d and attempting to give USPS control over who can vote by mail.<\/p>\n

In the court filing, the amici curiae argue that the order violates the separation of powers and usurps congressional authorities outlined in Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the states and Congress exclusive authority over election administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs current and former legislators, amici took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States\u2014including its guarantee of the separation of powers. Amici have a particular interest in defending the institutional role of the Legislative Branch under Article I of the Constitution and in vindicating the long-settled principle that the Constitution commits ultimate regulatory authority over federal elections to Congress. The Constitution does not contemplate the Executive Branch acting unilaterally to assert power over federal elections. Yet that is what the Order and Final Rule do,\u201d\u00a0wrote the lawmakers.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The amici also pointed to a recent federal court ruling blocking the USPS from implementing its newly finalized mail ballot rule for the midterm elections, saying the agency lacked the authority to implement the rule and that its actions are \u201csubstantively unconstitutional and contrary to law<\/a>.\u201d The group concluded by asserting States\u2019 power to administer elections and Congress\u2019s power to make or alter rules regulating elections, which the Supreme Court itself has described as an \u201coverride<\/a>\u201d authority. The president\u2019s illegal incursion on this authority is an attempt to disenfranchise people who depend on mail-in ballots to vote.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9\/10\/26 – In response to President Donald Trump\u2019s Executive Order 14399 seeking to exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), co-chair of the Congressional Postal Caucus,\u00a0led 99 members in calling on the Postmaster General to revoke a Postal Service rule codifying the order. In addition to that,\u00a0Pappas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40157,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40156\/revisions\/40157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}