Rule would require states to provide federal government with information on voters in return for delivering ballots

Rule would require states to provide federal government with information on voters in return for delivering ballots

The US Postal Service prepared to publish a final ⁠rule late ⁠on ​Friday to impose new requirements on states to provide the federal government with information on voters before the November ⁠midterm congressional elections, despite a ​pair of court ‌orders ‌that currently block the ‌changes from taking effect.

The USPS acknowledged in the text of the final rule posted online Friday, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register next week, that two injunctions issued by federal courts in California and Massachusetts currently bar it from moving ahead with the changes to comply with a March executive order signed by Donald Trump.

In accordance with the order, the postal service would ‌require states to give the US Department of Homeland Security and other agencies access to lists of voters and to adopt new balloting procedures before the mail agency would make deliveries. If states did not comply, the USPS would refuse to deliver the ballots.

  • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    I’m in WA and I never vote by mail.

    Sorry, but that’s incorrect. Barring exceptions, everyone in WA always votes by mail. Your ballot is delivered via USPS to your home. You can (and always should, if able) choose to use the drop boxes to turn in your completed ballot, but all ballots are considered mail ballots (though in exceptional cases you can vote in-person at a county elections office). And if the USPS is allowed to institute this new policy, they will refuse to deliver the ballots at all unless the state provides detailed voter registration data for every ballot to the federal government. If that happens, the state will either have to comply, fight it in court, or find a new way to distribute ballots.

    You may or may not be old enough to remember that before the current system, you had to specially request an “absentee” ballot to vote by mail, and most people voted in-person at designated polling sites. Those sites don’t exist anymore.

    • FirstCircle@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      10 days ago

      I went to the WA SOS site and it appears that you’re correct. I had never thought of the VBM term as encompassing the distribution of ballots. In my mind “voting” is the act of filling in the little circles, popping the ballot into the envelope(s), and returning the ballot somehow. So yes, if Republicans can successfully prevent the distribution of ballots, that’s going to be a huge problem in WA state and other states that use primarily VBM. As for “absentee” ballots, I’d heard the term but not in a long time, and mentally associated it with voting systems back east where I’m from and where VBM did not exist when I lived there. An “absentee” ballot was something you requested if you were going to be unable to physically get to the polling location for some reason.

      • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        9 days ago

        Yeah, so historically, it was the same here in WA. You could file a special request for an absentee ballot if you were unable to be physically present to vote, but you had to file your request for every election. In 1991 they made it policy that anyone could request an absentee ballot on an ongoing basis, and that would become your default voting method. In 2005, they gave counties the option of switching to VBM as the default for everyone. Most switched immediately, and I think the rest followed pretty quickly. Back then, there were no drop boxes and you had to mail your ballot back with postage. The drop boxes arrived a few years later, and pre-paid postage was added a little later.

        Republicans hate VBM for two reasons: the ease and convenience increases voter turnout. The voter pamphlets you get with your ballot increase awareness of who and what you’re voting for. Both of these things result in fewer Republican wins.