David Steiner is holding Americans’ ballots hostage

More than 48 million Americans voted by mail in the last general election. Every one of them trusted a simple promise: cast your ballot on time, and the United States Postal Service (USPS) will deliver it. That promise matters to military service members deployed overseas, seniors, rural voters, people with disabilities, and countless others who rely on the mail to participate in our democracy. Now, President Trump has ordered the USPS to rewrite that promise, and Postmaster General David Steiner is carrying out that directive.

On May 29, Steiner proposed a new USPS rule that would amount to an outrageous ultimatum: states need to hand over the voter registration data of every voter who has requested a mail-in ballot, or the USPS will refuse to deliver election ballots in those states.

This proposed rule is no longer hypothetical. USPS has already begun to build the infrastructure that states would be required to use to comply. And at a June 24 Senate hearing, Steiner removed any doubt about how far he's willing to go. Asked directly whether USPS would keep delivering ballots to a state that refused to turn over its voter rolls, his answer was unequivocal: no.

That answer should stop everyone in their tracks. For decades, the Postal Service has operated as a neutral, nonpartisan carrier of election mail. Steiner's rule would end that. Instead, it would allow the Postal Service to decide whether millions of Americans receive a ballot at all, based on whether their state first surrenders sensitive voter data to the federal government.

Steiner says the rule is meant to ensure “the right ballots are going to the right people.” But the Postal Service already has established procedures for securely and reliably handling election mail. What this proposal does is something entirely different: it gives USPS the power to withhold election mail from entire states unless they comply with federal demands for voter data. That is not the role Congress assigned to the Postal Service, and it is not a decision the Postmaster General should make on his own.

Our state allows ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within 14 days to be counted. If USPS decides Illinois hasn't handed over a list of voters that meet President Trump’s approval, the ballots of Illinois service members overseas, seniors, and rural voters could sit in limbo — not because voters did anything wrong, but because Steiner is following President Trump’s order instead of doing his job.

A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked the rule from taking effect for now, and Illinois — as one of the plaintiff states — is protected. But the Department of Justice has said it will appeal, and USPS continues moving its rule through the federal rulemaking process, with the proposed rule expected to be finalized by the end of July. “For now” is not “resolved,” and the millions of voters who utilize absentee ballots, including our men and women overseas, don't have the luxury of waiting to find out.

That is the fight that matters right now, and it's not solely waged in the courts. I've pressed Postmaster General Steiner directly on this rule, and made clear that if USPS continues to advance it, I will pursue a subpoena and push for his removal. This is dangerous territory, and Congress cannot treat it as business as usual.

Free, fair, and secure elections are the foundation of our democracy. We can verify signatures, maintain accurate voter rolls, and prosecute real election fraud where it exists — all without implementing President Trump's executive order turning the Postal Service into an instrument of voter suppression. Congress should demand full transparency from Postmaster General Steiner about his role in carrying out that order, reject this proposal, and ensure that every eligible American who casts a ballot on time has that ballot delivered and counted.

• U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is a Democrat from Schaumburg.