Pappas, Budzinski Demand President Trump Rescind His Unconstitutional Executive Order on Mail-In Voting

Today Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) and Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) led 101 members of Congress in a letter to President Trump raising serious concerns about his executive order that would effectively limit vote-by-mail. The order, signed on March 29, directs the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Social Security Administration and state governments, to compile lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and requires the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to deliver ballots only to voters whose names appear on those lists.

The members wrote, “Oversight of the Postal Service lies with the Postal Board of Governors, the Postal Regulatory Commission, and Congress – not the President of the United States. As such, we demand that you rescind Executive Order 14399 immediately and instead focus on expanding access to mail-in voting, rather than using the Postal Service to suppress Americans’ right to vote.”

In addition, the lawmakers raised concerns about the feasibility of the order and the negative consequences it could have for postal employees, as well as the timeliness of already slow mail delivery.

They continued, “This mandate places the Postal Service and its dedicated workforce – who already work tirelessly to ensure daily mail delivery – in the untenable position of cross-referencing tens of millions of ballots within a remarkably narrow timeframe leading up to an election. This would cause extreme delays of all types of mail, including election ballots, medicine, bills, and paychecks, negatively impacting the lives and livelihoods of Americans who rely on the Postal Service while also disenfranchising millions.”

The full text of the letter is HERE and below: 

President Trump,

We write to express our deep concerns regarding the legality and operational challenges surrounding Executive Order 14399, entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” that you signed on March 31, 2026.

The independence of the U.S. Postal Service (Postal Service) is codified in statute by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which removed the Postal Service from the President’s Cabinet and put it under the purview of an independent Board of Governors. Executive Order 14399 directly undermines that law and poses a significant threat to the millions of citizens who depend on mail-in ballots to participate in the democratic process of voting. Furthermore, it establishes a dangerous precedent for political interference in the operations of the United States Postal Service. Oversight of the Postal Service lies with the Postal Board of Governors, the Postal Regulatory Commission, and Congress – not the President of the United States. As such, we demand that you rescind Executive Order 14399 immediately and instead focus on expanding access to mail-in voting, rather than using the Postal Service to suppress Americans’ right to vote.

For more than a century, the Postal Service has been tasked with delivering mail-in ballots for Americans who are unable to vote in person. This includes active duty servicemen and women, sick and disabled Americans, and those who must travel for work. In 2024, the Postal Service delivered more than 48 million ballots, accounting for nearly 31 percent of all American voters in the 2024 general election. Among these ballots, over 99 percent were delivered on-time by the Postal Service–a testament to the hard work and dedication of the over 600,000 Postal Service employees across the country. To put simply, voting by mail is a safe and effective way to cast a ballot and has been for over a century. Your executive order serves as a radical attempt to suppress millions of Americans from being able to vote. 

It is exceedingly clear that this order is unconstitutional. Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution clearly states that the “manner” of holding elections for Senators and Representatives is determined by the states or Congress. The Constitution and multiple court rulings put it in stark terms: the President does not have the authority to issue an executive order that attempts to undermine the ability of states to run their own elections.

In addition to its illegality, this executive order is unworkable. This executive order seeks to utilize the Postal Service to selectively and arbitrarily withdraw specific ballots from the mail stream. Under this order, Postal Service employees would be instructed to crosscheck and potentially remove election mail that is already in circulation based on lists provided to the Postal Service by the Department of Homeland Security and state governments. Specifically, in Section 3(iii) of the order, the Postal Service is directed to “not transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from any individual unless those individuals have been enrolled on a State-specific list.” This mandate places the Postal Service and its dedicated workforce–who already work tirelessly to ensure daily mail delivery–in the untenable position of cross-referencing tens of millions of ballots within a remarkably narrow timeframe leading up to an election. This would cause extreme delays of all types of mail, including election ballots, medicine, bills, and paychecks, negatively impacting the lives and livelihoods of Americans who rely on the Postal Service while also disenfranchising millions.

We demand your written commitment that you will refrain from any future actions to undermine the Postal Service’s critical role as an independent agency of the federal government, and that you rescind this illegal and reckless executive order.

Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,