The Trump administration attempts to use USPS to hold states hostage for voter lists

The Trump administration is now 0-8 on its demands for state voter rolls.

Across the country—including here in Wisconsin—federal court judges have rejected this federal Executive Branch overreach into election administration, which the U.S. Constitution says is properly the purview of state officials.

Now the administration is upping the ante. The U.S. Postal Service recently issued proposed rules in response to a Trump executive order seeking to exert federal control over mail-in voting. The proposal includes a provision that would require states to either turn over lists of registered voters to whom state election officials will mail ballots, or be ineligible for USPS delivery of absentee ballots.

If allowed to take effect, the rule would put states in an impossible position: either create and turn over mail-in voter registration lists to a federal administration that has proven itself to be hostile to voting rights and the Rule of Law, or halt mail-in absentee voting altogether.

Fortunately, Law Forward is taking part in two lawsuits directly relevant to this issue to protect the rights and privacy of Wisconsin voters.

First, on behalf of Common Cause, Law Forward and the ACLU intervened in U.S. v. Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), a case in federal court in Madison where the U.S. Department of Justice demanded full access to Wisconsin voter rolls, including sensitive voter data that WEC is prohibited from releasing by state law. We and WEC prevailed in federal court on May 21, but now the Trump team is appealing the dismissal of its case to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Second, Law Forward filed amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs in two lawsuits challenging Trump’s USPS executive order, which are now pending before federal judges in Washington, D.C. and Boston. In those cases, including League of Women Voters v. Trump, we argue that the executive order would conflict with and upend Wisconsin’s uniquely decentralized election system and could disenfranchise eligible voters ahead of the next statewide election.

The Trump administration’s proposed USPS rule would require unique bar codes to be placed on every mail-in ballot envelope in a purported effort to prevent election fraud. Among other problems with this scheme, only two cities where Wisconsin mail is routed have the equipment to read these bar codes. WEC Commissioner Don Millis said the proposal would likely mean longer delays for mail-in ballots, especially in rural areas. This, at a time when WEC is sternly warning USPS that far too many ballots already are arriving after election day.

The U.S. Constitution is clear that elections are to be run by states not the federal government. The reasons for this are obvious. As a fundamental aspect of our constitutional order, our nation’s founders intended to protect our democracy from the machinations of a despot. This year more than ever, we are called to defend this prescient directive, which protects the rights of all Wisconsin voters and citizens. And Law Forward is doing precisely that.

By: Mary Bottari, Director of Strategic Partnerships. June 16, 2026.