{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/2026/09/09/slotkin-peters-demand-postal-service-halt-implementation-of-unconstitutional-vote-by-mail-restrictions/", "Slotkin,\u00a0Peters\u00a0Demand\u00a0Postal Service\u00a0Halt Implementation of Unconstitutional Vote-by-Mail Restrictions", "2026-09-09", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "MI", "Elissa Slotkin", "S001208", "www.slotkin.senate.gov", "slotkin", "https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/newsroom/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Gary Peters (D-MI) joined Committee Democrats in demanding that the United States Postal Service (USPS) immediately halt implementation of President Trump\u2019s unlawful vote-by-mail executive order and rescind its recently finalized rule on federal ballot mail. In a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner and the USPS Board of Governors, the senators warned that the Postal Service\u2019s efforts to fundamentally change how absentee ballots are processed and delivered just weeks before the 2026 midterm elections risks disenfranchising millions of eligible voters and disrupting the smooth administration of the elections.\n\nSlotkin recently pressed Trump Administration nominees for USPS about this very topic. You can watch those hearings here and here.\n\nThe lawmakers are also demanding the Postal Service provide overdue answers about what legal authority permits it to regulate federal election mail, its new ballot verification processes, and the operation of its Federal Ballot Mail Portal, as well as its efforts to comply with federal court orders.\n\n\u201cDespite repeated warnings from Congress and court orders not to implement the President\u2019s unlawful directives to regulate mail-in voting, the Postal Service continues to carry out these actions, which will undermine peoples\u2019 faith in the upcoming elections,\u201d the Senators wrote. \u201cIf the Postal Service does not immediately reverse its current course, it will inflict lasting harm to our democracy and permanently damage a storied American institution.\u201d\n\nOn August 21, USPS finalized a rule to implement President Trump\u2019s vote-by-mail executive order that would require states to provide absentee voter rolls to the federal government and comply with new ballot standards, while giving USPS the authority to verify and refuse to deliver ballots that do not meet its requirements. The senators argue that neither the President nor USPS has the legal authority to regulate absentee voting and noted that despite previous commitments to Congress that it would abide by judicial injunctions, the Postal Service finalized the rule while subject to a federal court order prohibiting it from doing so.\n\nThe Postal Service\u2019s rule is also being challenged in several ongoing federal lawsuits, where the legality of the Administration\u2019s vote-by-mail directives remains under review.\n\nJoining Slotkin and Peters in sending the letter were Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and John Fetterman (D-PA).\n\nRead the letter HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-10T09:25:58Z", "2026-09-10T09:27:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/2026/09/09/slotkin-peters-demand-postal-service-halt-implementation-of-unconstitutional-vote-by-mail-restrictions/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5949041116982698, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}