Postmaster General breaks silence on Trump’s failed mail voting crackdown

Work on a controversial computer database central to President Donald Trump’s effort to restrict voting by mail has been suspended by the U.S. Postal Service, following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his executive order this week.

"There’s an injunction so we’re not doing anything," postmaster general David Steiner told The Associated Press in an interview.

Steiner, a former chief executive of Waste Management, has spent much of the past year guiding the postal service through political turbulence and financial hardship. He continues to press Congress for legislative changes to help resolve what he has described as a "liquidity crisis."

Trump’s efforts to largely eliminate voting by mail transformed the postal service into an unlikely arbiter of voter eligibility just months before this year's critical midterm elections.

Steiner seemed reluctant to play that role. While Trump launched sharp criticism at the Supreme Court decision and mocked several justices, Steiner offered no assessment of the ruling.

Steiner also declined to take a position on Trump’s policy, characterizing himself as the leader of an "independent agency of the executive branch" whose involvement with the president’s order was strictly limited to operational concerns.

"I don’t get to decide what rules that are put on us that I decide to accept or not accept," he said. "I looked at it more from the execution side."

The agency has previously asserted its independence, including during a 2019 standoff when the first Trump administration sought to pressure the service during a dispute with Amazon. Steiner said he would not get into the "nuance" of that previous standoff.

Intense political pressure has occasionally fueled speculation regarding whether Steiner might resign, a possibility he explicitly denied.

"There’s no truth to that," he said. "I think I know the motivation behind it. I think it’s somebody that would like to see me out of a job."

Under the executive order Trump signed in March, several federal agencies were tasked with developing state citizenship lists. Those records were to be sent to an online portal at the Postal Service, which would then be allowed to send mail ballots exclusively to voters cleared through the process.

Steiner noted he learned of the order about a month before its unveiling, emphasizing that his focus remained strictly on implementation rather than policy merits.

A whistleblower report released earlier this month by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., argued that the system had been hastily built and was riddled with errors.

Steiner acknowledged reading "portions" of the report and recognized the obstacles associated with rapidly building such a massive platform. Nevertheless, he expressed confidence in colleagues working on the project and said the agency had planned to unveil it around Sept. 15.

"There’s absolutely no doubt that we worked fast," he said. "My personal opinion is it was a monumental task and I’m very proud of our IT department for being able to do it that fast."

In addition to the voter list, Trump’s order sought to require states to adopt uniform envelope designs featuring barcodes, a requirement states described as arduous so close to the election.

Following the Supreme Court ruling, an internal memo sent to postal service employees Wednesday and obtained by the AP said the agency will "not be enforcing any of these new rules in the 2026 federal election."

"First and foremost, for Election Mail it is business as usual," the memo said. "We continue to follow established protocols, and we remain entirely focused on our core mission: delivering the mail safely and securely for voters and election officials across the country."

Although the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s executive order for this year’s election, Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated he might rule in favor of the administration if the matter comes back before the court later.

Steiner said the postal service will still encourage the use of envelopes and barcodes in future elections, which it has long recommended. Compliance will not be required, but noncompliance may result in higher rates.

"If you use the barcode in the envelope, we’ll charge you a lower price," he said. "If you don’t, we’re going to charge you a higher price because it’s harder for us to process."

While the agency is not moving forward on Trump’s order, concerns persist over postmark delays that could impact this year’s elections. Rejected ballot counts due to late postmarks have surged in vote-by-mail states such as Washington and Oregon, highlighting worries about recent operational changes.

Steiner said there were no plans to alter those operations and encouraged voters using the mail to submit ballots early.

"We say seven days," he said. "Everything is solved if people vote early."