Sen. Elissa Slotkin used a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing to accuse Postmaster General David Steiner of allowing himself to be weaponized in President Trump’s effort to undermine mail-in voting, pressing him on a proposed rule that would require states to hand over voter rolls before USPS will deliver ballots.
The Michigan Democrat opened by linking the Postal Service’s funding struggles to the broader political moment, then pivoted hard to elections.
“The US Postal Service is now part of this bigger story of this president desperate to federalize our elections,” she said.
She then asked Steiner directly: “Have you ever voted by mail?”
“I have not,” Steiner answered.
Slotkin pressed further, asking whether a piece of mail placed in a mailbox should simply be delivered.
Steiner hedged.
“If you want a yes or no answer, I’d say no,” he said, before Slotkin clarified she wasn’t talking about anything dangerous, “not a threat,” not “a weapon,” just an ordinary ballot. “We send every piece of mail that we send in accordance with our regulations,” he eventually said.
Slotkin then turned to Michigan’s looming primary, asking whether Steiner would direct USPS to deliver a ballot mailed by an ordinary voter after June 25. “I don’t have to direct the Postal Service to do that, because we do that every day,” Steiner said.
“So then why are you demanding Michigan’s voter rolls?” Slotkin shot back, noting Trump’s administration has sued Michigan and other states over the issue.
She pressed once more on whether USPS would withhold ballots without the rolls. Steiner confirmed the rule was his agency’s own proposal. “We did,” he said. “We will move those ballots in accordance with whatever rule is in effect.”
Slotkin closed with a direct appeal. “You are being used as part of a much bigger story,” she told Steiner. “Please push back on being a pawn in this authoritarian playbook. … Don’t taint it with the obsession of this one man.”