U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York joined the Senate Democratic caucus in urging the U.S. Postal Service to abandon a proposed rule tied to President Donald Trump's executive order on mail voting.
Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, and Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Alex Padilla of California led the letter, which says the Postal Service should not move forward with a rule Democrats argue would give the agency an improper role in election administration.
The senators said the proposed rule follows an executive order that would require states to send absentee voter information to USPS for a federal mail-in voter list. Democrats said the policy could allow USPS to refuse delivery of ballots to voters not included on that list.
The caucus argued the rule would create a federally controlled database of absentee voters and raised concerns that voter information could be misused or compared with other federal datasets in ways that wrongly affect eligible voters.
USPS published the proposed rule June 2, according to the Senate Democratic Caucus release. Democrats said they previously wrote to the Postal Service in April after the executive order was issued but did not receive a response.
The letter asks USPS to withdraw the proposed regulation and focus on its postal-service mission.
The release said all Senate Democrats joined the request, including Schumer and Gillibrand.
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