The United States Postal Service issued a 95-page final rule on Friday outlining how it would comply with President Donald Trump’s March executive order aimed at “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.”
The report, which will be released on Wednesday, says USPS will direct states to provide the agency with a list of eligible citizens and to notify it 60 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections if they intend to submit the citizenship data. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary federal injunction last week blocking the mail-in voting rule as originally outlined in June. USPS said it would “not take actions to implement the rule specifically before the 2026 election” unless the Supreme Court sides with the Trump administration, according to the New York Times.
Election integrity has become a key policy priority under Trump throughout the summer, as the president has repeatedly called for the passage of the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to provide proof of citizenship and a photo ID to vote. The legislation and the GOP’s broader push for stricter voting laws drew increased attention after Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) revealed in late July that roughly 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote between 2023 and 2024 due to a software error. Trump also alleged the Communist Party of China engaged in election interference in the 2020 presidential election during a primetime address days before the New Jersey revelation.
“Any state that intends to receive mail-in or absentee ballots from individual voters through the Postal Service must ensure that such individuals have been enrolled with the Postal Service for inclusion on the state’s Mail-In and Absentee Participation List,” the new rule says. Under the rule, the USPS would then return a final Mail-In and Absentee Participation List to each participating state’s chief election official.
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“This provision will help determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts,” the rule published in June reads. “For example, the provided lists will evidence how many ballots have been mailed, and allow law enforcement officials to compare the total number of mailed ballots to the total number of received ballots to detect potential issues meriting further investigation.” Postmaster General David Stenienr sparred with Senate Democrats over the rule in Late June, saying then the rule is “a question of how do we most efficiently and securely move ballots.”
The SAVE America Act has passed the House in multiple forms but has stalled in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has consistently said throughout the summer that the upper chamber lacks the necessary votes to send the legislation to the president’s desk.