Thirty House Democrats have sent a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner demanding answers about whether the U.S. Postal Service was pressured by the Trump administration to interfere with mail-in ballot delivery ahead of the 2026 elections, and about a newly proposed federal rule that would attach conditions to how mail-in ballots are accepted. The letter, and the questions in it, were reported by Black Star News, drawing on a press release from the office of Rep. Kweisi Mfume.
The effort is led by Mfume, a Maryland Democrat and the ranking member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. The other 28 signers include Rep. Dan Goldman, whose district covers Lower Manhattan and a swath of brownstone Brooklyn, making him the lone New York City member on the letter.
On June 2, 2026, USPS published a proposed rule, docketed as 91 FR 32915, that would impose new federal requirements on mail-in voting. According to the lawmakers, the rule would require states to submit their voter lists to a federal portal, called the Federal Ballot Mail Portal, and would condition whether a mail-in ballot is accepted on whether the voter appears on that federally administered list. The rule cites two sections of postal law, 39 U.S.C. 401 and 404, as its legal basis.
Mfume framed that as a fundamental shift in what the Postal Service does. “This proposed rule would turn the Postal Service into a political weapon against voters, requiring states to submit voter lists to a federal portal and empowering USPS to reject ballots outright,” he said in the letter’s announcement. “More than 48 million Americans voted by mail in the 2024 General Election, and the millions who will do so again in November deserve assurance that their ballot will be delivered without political interference.”
Krishnamoorthi kept it broader. “The United States Postal Service must remain an independent and reliable institution that delivers election mail securely and on time, free from political interference,” he said. “Americans deserve confidence that no administration will manipulate access to the ballot box or undermine lawful voting.”
The letter asks Steiner to hand over the legal memos USPS relied on to conclude it can condition ballot acceptance on a federal voter list, to detail the timeline for standing up the Federal Ballot Mail Portal, and to say whether the agency has assessed whether any of this is operationally doable before the November 3, 2026 general election. It also asks what communications took place between the White House, the Department of Justice and USPS about the rule, including dates, participants and substance.
A separate question goes to the practical stakes for voters: what USPS is doing to make sure everyone who requested a mail-in or absentee ballot under state law actually gets one, including people whose names are not on a state-specific participation list when ballots go out. The lawmakers also want to know about any operational changes, resource reallocations or policy shifts affecting election mail since January 2025.
In the letter, the members tied the rule to President Trump’s repeated attacks on mail-in voting and to recent Department of Justice efforts targeting election materials. They set a deadline of June 23, 2026 for Steiner to respond, along with all relevant documents and communications.
