A restrictive new U.S. Postal Service system for vote-by-mail processing could cause widespread problems with ballot delivery if implemented, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read warned in a video message Tuesday, vowing that the state will fight to "stop the federal government from interfering in our free, fair elections."
Read was responding to reports earlier in the day about a whistleblower complaint that accuses USPS of rushing the development of the new system, which is being built at the direction of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in March. Trump has repeatedly claimed that mail voting enables fraud and blamed his 2020 election loss on widespread voter fraud, though there is no evidence to support either either assertion.
"I'm not going to let the Trump administration deny a single Oregon citizen their legal right to vote. I will use every tool available to protect the security and integrity of our elections. We will continue to challenge this USPS plan, and we will continue to have safe, accurate, and fair vote-by-mail elections in Oregon — regardless of what happens with the USPS," Read added in a statement.
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