undefined
It's worth trying to understand what problem this executive order is purporting to solve. It's not clear; you have to squint.
Trump and many of the election deniers have created a widespread impression that mail-in ballots are unsecured, and that there are no (or only ineffective) safeguards against sending in counterfeit, fake, or duplicated ballots and having them counted.
But, despite being repeated frequently, this impression is completely false and baseless, as I'll discuss.
@dutch_connection_uk The ballot delivery provisions of the EO applies (or attempts to apply) only to the USPS. So yes.
I apologize if I'm not sufficiently shouty and panicky here. Don't worry, if the social media noise level drops to dangerously serene levels, I'll jump in and do my part.
Many ballots are already returned in plain envelops. The generic UOCAVA ballot, used by many military and expat overseas voters, is designed to be returned in a regular envelope. And some states allow "print-at-home" blank ballot forms for some or all voters, which are also returned by a regular, voter-supplied envelope.
An aside: most mail from election offices to voters, and most pre-printed ballot return envelopes, are marked "Official Election Mail". This is a convenience, but not a requirement. The USPS takes some measures to expedite and protect election mail (they'll usually deliver it even without postage), but there is no law requiring that election offices use the marking. A state that wants to evade Trump's (rather feckless) EO could simply use regular envelopes.
Anyway, I agree with Rick Hasen that this is not cause for panic.
@NilaJones @alienghic No. There is no federal law governing ballot return. Some states have laws restricting aggregated return of ballots, but those are state, not federal, laws.
And the legal problems with this are too numerous to enumerate. For one, this EO requires the USPS to engage in conduct that could be construed as interfering with individuals' rights to vote, which is a criminal offense. Ballots from purported "unauthorized" voters would never be delivered, depriving the voters of the ability to ever adjudicate any questions raised about their eligibility (which might occur when their ballot is received).
@RVLara23 Maybe. But even then, it would be out of date. People move.
One problem: there is no existing master list of US citizens and their addresses. This is why states have to have voter registration in the first place.
@alienghic Right. Or if your ballot is returned inside another envelope.
The postal provisions would place requirements on the ballot RETURN envelope (with the marked ballot sent back from the voter) that it must identify the voter via a barcode for comparison with the approved list. It would apply to envelopes marked as "official election mail", which is not a marking states are required to use, though most do.
Anyway, this will be challenged in court, and the logistics of it would make it pretty infeasible prior to the midterms in any case.
Trump signed an executive order today about mail in voting. It's an attempt to restrict postal delivery of mail in ballots to people on a DHS-compiled list of citizens.
Rick Hasen has a nice summary (tl;dr: not much to get worked up over here, for both legal and practical reasons):
The Hetch Hetchy water system was controversial from the start, pitting conservation (the primary reservoir is in a national park) against the need for clean and reliable urban water supplies. At the time of its construction, the fires from the 1906 great earthquake were still freshly in living memory, though organizations like the Sierra Club opposed the project.
California's Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, completed in 1936, delivers about 85% of the water used in the San Francisco Bay area. Originating over 160 miles away, at Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy reservoir, and working chiefly by gravity, a 21 mile section of two pipelines crosses the South Bay via a series of underground tunnels and bridges just south of the Dumbarton Bridge. This above-grade section, near the end of its useful life, has recently been augmented by a deep tunnel.
Infrastructure is heroic.
Captured with Rodenstock 138mm/6.5 HR Digaron-SW lens (@ f/7.1), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50, 1/100 sec), Cambo WRS 5000 camera, stitched panorama of two images, shifted left and right +/- about 20mm.
The final above-ground section of the Hetch Hetchy pipeline exiting the San Francisco Bay into the Peninsula at East Palo Alto.
Cross-Bay Pipeline, Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, Ravenswood, CA, 2025
All the pixels, but none of the water, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54852902370
@20002ist Secaucus, crossing the Hackensack River.
Just took my first ride across Amtrak’s newly opened Portal Bridge replacement. The old bridge, visible here, frequently gets stuck in the open position, making it a frequent bottleneck into and out of NYC’s Penn Station.
Still has that new bridge smell.
Infrastructure is heroic.
Gramercy Park, which sits between Lexington Avenue and Irving Place between 20th and 21st Streets in Manhattan, is a locked private park. At the center of the park is a statute of Edwin Booth, a 19th century actor today best known for being the less murderous sibling of John Wilkes Booth.
Only residents of the surrounding buildings are issued keys. There are a lot of rules, including against photography, so this is as close as we get. If you have to ask, you don't belong. Go away.