US Postal Service Halts Work on Mail-Voting System After Court Injunction

The United States Postal Service has halted development of a computer system that had been central to President Donald Trump's push to restrict mail voting, according to Postmaster General David Steiner.

In an interview, Steiner said the agency was standing down because of a court order. "There's an injunction so we're not doing anything," he said.

The Supreme Court this week rejected Trump's executive order, a decision that left the postal service's role in the dispute in abeyance. Steiner, a former chief executive of Waste Management who has led the postal service for most of the past year, did not offer any assessment of the court's action. He also declined to take a position on the policy itself.

Instead, Steiner described himself as the head of an "independent agency of the executive branch" whose involvement in the president's order was confined to operational matters. "I don't get to decide what rules that are put on us that I decide to accept or not accept," he said. "I looked at it more from the execution side."

The dispute had thrust the postal service into an unusual role as an arbiter of voter eligibility just months before this year's midterm elections — a position Steiner appeared reluctant to occupy. Trump had been sharply critical of the Supreme Court's decision and mocked some of the justices, but Steiner avoided commenting on the ruling.

Separately, Steiner has been pressing Congress for changes to address what he has called a "liquidity crisis" at the agency, adding a financial dimension to his tenure.