Senator Hassan Presses Postmaster General on Mail-In Ballots, Mail Delivery Delays in Rural New Hampshire

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), a senior member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, questioned Postmaster General David Steiner on President Trump's proposed rule to restrict voting by mail in states across the country, including in New Hampshire and mail delivery delays in rural New Hampshire at a hearing this week.

Click hereto watch Senator Hassan's full questioning during the hearing.

Senator Hassan called out the recent rule proposed by USPS, at President Trump's direction, that would allow the agency to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots to voters unless those voters have been enrolled in a specific postal service process for creating state voter lists. This would mean that New Hampshire voters who are not specifically submitted for inclusion on a Post Office voter list won't be able to receive their absentee or mail-in ballots.

"This un-American plan will inevitably result in some law-abiding U.S. citizens not being able to receive the ballots they're entitled to and reduce citizen participation in our democracy," Senator Hassan said. "In New Hampshire, where people vote absentee only if they are physically unable to be at the polls on election day - and often don't know that that will be the case until kind of the eleventh hour - it means that some eligible voters will be unable to vote in my state."

Senator Hassan secured a commitment from the Postmaster General that the agency would follow any court orders striking down the proposal. The day after the hearing, a federal judge blocked USPS's proposed rule to restrict mail-in voting.

Senator Hassan also questioned the Postmaster General about the uptick in mail delays facing Granite Staters. "On time delivery for first-class mail in the New Hampshire region has fallen by more than 10 percentage points over the last eight years and is now more than five percentage points below the postal service's own target of 87%. That means nearly one in five letters are failing to arrive on time," said Senator Hassan.

"Rural America depends on the post office for a lot of things. The last mile delivery is critically important. We're talking about people's medications, we're talking about payments for small businesses and supplies. So this is really important to us," Senator Hassan continued.

Senator Hassan repeatedly pressed Steiner to commit to protecting and improving rural mail delivery. While Steiner said he shared the goal, he did not make any commitments on when USPS would meet them, instead saying, "I'd love to have that. Let's make sure, you know, we should be delivering at least as well as our competition delivers packages... So we're talking sort of 95 percent."

Senator Hassan is committed to protecting and strengthening the USPS. In 2022, Senator Hassan and colleagues' bipartisan legislation to strengthen the USPS and improve the agency's long-term financial stability was signed into law.

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