A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A federal judge in Boston has blocked parts of President Trump's executive order to restrict voting by mail. That order calls for the U.S. Postal Service to play a role in determining who can receive mail-in ballots. Here's NPR's Hansi Lo Wang.
HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: President Trump's executive order has hit a legal hurdle and so far has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year's primary elections.
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GARY PETERS: Postmaster General Steiner, the Postal Service's proposed vote-by-mail rule...
WANG: But this week on Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan grilled David Steiner, the head of the Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR. USPS proposed using information from state election officials to create lists of approved absentee voters, as called for by Trump's order.
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PETERS: So yes or no - if a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposal?
DAVID STEINER: Under our proposed regulation, no.
WANG: This and other proposals for Trump's order have been blocked by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani. The judge found that the order exceeds Trump's authority under the Constitution, which gives power to state legislatures and Congress, not the president, to set federal election rules. The judge also found that USPS has no legal authority to regulate who can vote by mail and how, an issue that Senator Peters pressed Steiner on.
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STEINER: I would have to defer that to the courts to understand the authority.
PETERS: Well, I think it's clear that there's nowhere in the Constitution, there's no federal law that the Postal Service is authorized to create these types of voter databases, ballot verification systems or mandatory standards. It just simply doesn't exist.
WANG: Trump himself voted by mail in Florida in March, and the president has said he issued this order to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens in federal elections, which many reviews have shown to be incredibly rare. The Trump administration is now expected to appeal the new ruling against the order.
Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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