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AG Brown announces multi-state lawsuit protecting election integrity
Attorney General Nick Brown announced Wednesday a new multi-state lawsuit protecting election integrity, which argues the president's push for banning mail-in voting is both unconstitutional and illegal.
OLYMPIA - Attorney General Nick Brown announced a multi-state lawsuit against the United States Postal Service Wednesday, challenging the USPS's attempt to regulate mail-in voting.
The lawsuit deems the attempt unconstitutional and illegal, citing privacy concerns, inconsistencies with both voting rights laws of the federal government and the governing status of USPS and that tens of millions of voters across the country are reliant on mail-in ballots.
The 24 states filing the lawsuit argue USPS's rule will hinder the efficiency of mail-in voting, which risks disenfranchising programs that states have relied on through multiple administrations. Keep reading for more information.
The backstory:
President Trump issued an executive order that directed USPS to transmit mail ballots only to voters on a national list of eligible voters on March 31. Fast-forward to Wednesday when USPS published an official new rule supporting the president's order.
This rule specifically has a number of implementations: requiring states to register every mail-in eligible voter through USPS, followed by USPS's task of organizing state-specific lists of registered voters.
There would also be new envelope design requirements for states, and the USPS would need to approve them first. The USPS would also not deliver ballots to voters whose names do not appear on the registered voter lists, nor would they deliver ballots to states that fail to meet new envelope design requirements.
What they're saying:
"State and local election officials would need to bring each ballot to a USPS facility, where their new federal barcodes would be individually scanned. In fact, the Postal Service itself estimates that scanning will take about a minute per ballot," AG Brown said at Wednesday's press conference.
Brown emphasized in Wednesday's press conference that Washington has had a safe history with mail-in voting since 1983, and has almost exclusively voted by mail since 2011. AG Brown said our state's elections have run smoothly through multiple administrations and ballots remain secure with the current implemented process.
Brown urged Washington voters to plan to vote early when ballots arrive for the upcoming mid-term election.
At the press conference, Brown turned the podium over to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, who outlined contingency plans if the lawsuit failed, noting 70% of WA voters already use ballot drop boxes.
The state already plans to supply additional drop boxes to counties, considering county ballots are already printed and cannot be reprinted with the requested outgoing barcodes.
On Wednesday, Hobbs shared the immediate timeline of the upcoming election, emphasizing that ballots are sent to overseas and military voters in under three weeks, criticizing the federal government for dismantling state election authority. Hobbs raised security concerns, including the privacy of domestic violence survivors under the address confidentiality program.
Dig deeper:
In a press release from the AG's office, the coalition argues that USPS's rule is unconstitutional, due to the states' primary authority to administer elections, including vote-by-mail procedures.
The defendants in the lawsuit claim the new rule is a direct violation of the Privacy Act, is inconsistent with voting rights laws of the federal government, is inconsistent with the governing statutes of USPS and ignores the organization's procedural requirements.
Congress has never authorized USPS to monitor or control the transmission of mail ballots, and the coalition is asking the court to strike down the rule, while issuing a temporary restraining order that prevents the rule from taking effect while the litigation proceeds, according to the press release from the AG's office.
Here is an alphabetical list of states included in the coalition:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Hawaiʻi
- Illinois
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
The Source: Information for this story came from a press release from the WA Attorney General's office and a press conference held Wednesday by Attorney General Nick Brown and Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.
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