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In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding that states turn over their voter rolls so that his administration could create its own list of authorized voters. Only those states complying and only Americans approved by the Trump administration would be eligible to vote by mail. Now the Postal Service is planning to amend the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service to comply with Trump’s order.
The executive order violates the Constitution, which gives states the authority to regulate elections. It also violates provisions of the Voting Rights Act and Privacy Act. The amendment violates federal law, which makes USPS an independent agency and requires it to be a neutral service.
This is only a recent Republican scheme to suppress our vote. In wooing and winning disgruntled Dixiecrats (who helped morph the Party of Lincoln to MAGA) the GOP embraced and expanded Jim Crow voter suppression tactics. Today, Project 2025 informs the Trump administration’s specious voter fraud claims and worse policies, including this effort to undermine the 2026 midterm elections.
Mainers have rejected such policies before. Our state government has refused to turn over voter rolls, which contain a wide range of personal information. In November 2025, by an almost 2-to-1 vote, Maine voters rejected a Republican-backed ballot initiative to suppress early voting, including mail-in voting.
Until July 2, we can comment on the Ballot Mail for Federal Elections amendment through the Federal Register and through the non-partisan League of Women Voters. This is a chance to defend the vote by mail option that so many of us rely on.
Annlinn Kruger
Bar Harbor