by Donald Eng
HARTFORD, CT — Connecticut is part of a 25-state coalition filing a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service (USPS) challenging its new rule that purports to grant USPS the authority to regulate mail voting in elections.
Tens of millions of voters across the country rely on mail-in ballots, and the coalition argues USPS’s rule will prevent states from effectively administering their mail voting programs, putting voters at risk of being disenfranchised, according to Attorney General William Tong.
“Once again, Donald Trump is breaking the law to try to micromanage who gets to vote, and how we cast our ballots,” Tong said. “This time, he’s ordering the United States Postal Service to do his dirty work. We sued to block the initial executive order, and now we’re suing again to block USPS from carrying out this illegal directive. The Constitution plainly forbids the president from commandeering elections to manipulate and micromanage how we vote, and we are aggressively pursuing our litigation on multiple fronts to protect our democracy,” Tong said.
On March 31, Trump issued an Executive Order attempting to establish a national list of eligible voters and directing the U.S. Postal Service to transmit mail ballots only to voters on the list. On August 21, USPS announced a new rule implementing the president’s demands that require states to register every voter who is eligible to vote by mail with USPS and tasking USPS with compiling the registered voters into state-specific lists.