Mail Voting Proposal: Make an Example of Steiner

Image taken by User:Minesweeper on December 14, 2003 and released into the public domain. From left to right, the post boxes belong to FedEx Corporation, University of California, Berkeley, United Parcel Service, and two from the United States Postal Service (the one on the left is for Express Mail only) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On June 2, the US Postal Service proposed a new rule in the Federal Register on standards for handling of mail ballots, with public comment open through July 2. That rule was issued pursuant to an executive order by US president Donald Trump.

While the proposal unambiguously claims that “states would retain full control over who would (or would not) be able to vote by mail in federal election,” US Postmaster General David Steiner, told Congress that in actuality, the organization he runs would refuse to deliver ballots in states which don’t turn over voter data to the federal government.

While a federal judge has already nixed the scheme, it will probably end up working its way to the US Supreme Court.

Even if more courts, possibly including SCOTUS, act to prevent the US Snail from seizing control of elections, it seems to me that the message — “don’t mess with our votes” — isn’t really getting through to the US government.

Examples need to be made, and I think there’s a way to make one: A federal grand jury.

While the usual perception of grand juries is that they indict only those whose indictments are sought by prosecutors — who, in the old saying, “could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich” — there’s nothing to PREVENT such a jury from handing down…