On Wednesday morning, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Secretary of State Steve Hobbs announced a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service.
On Wednesday morning, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Secretary of State Steve Hobbs announced a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service.
Brown, along with a coalition of 25 other states filed the lawsuits, challenging its "illegal attempt to regulate mail-in voting."
This comes after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this week that gave President Trump a win in his effort to restrict mail-in voting.
“The Constitution is clear: states control elections—not the president,” Brown said. “The U.S. Postal Service doesn’t have the authority to deny Washingtonians the ability to vote. We will protect the rule of law.”
In March, President Trump issued an executive order requiring states to turn over all voter information, and requiring the U.S. Postal Service to transmit mail ballots only to voters on the list.
On Wednesday, the USPS officially published a new rule implementing the president’s order.
"This rule was written to satisfy the president's continuous desire to control our vote," Brown said.
The rule also establishes new design requirements for the mail-in ballot envelopes created by states, which states are required to meet and get approved by USPS. Brown calls these rules "impossible" to implement, now less than 70 days from the midterm election on Nov. 3.
Brown is co-leading this lawsuit with the attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, and Nevada. It was also joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
