Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Monday he is considering taking legal action against the Trump administration to prevent cuts to the U.S. Postal Service that might threaten mail-in voting in November.
Weiser鈥檚 threat comes days after Trump said he opposed providing billions of dollars of emergency funding to the USPS during the pandemic because he does not want the money to be used to expand voting by mail.
Some top Democrats in Colorado, including Secretary of State Jena Griswold, are accusing Trump of trying to suppress voters by opposing the extra funding.
鈥淲e鈥檙e living at a challenging time,鈥� Weiser said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a time when all of us have reason to be concerned whether our federal government is following the rule of law, is acting in the service of our constitutional values.鈥�
Weiser said he has been talking to his counterparts in other states about a potential lawsuit over the USPS cuts.
鈥淓fforts by the federal government to undermine our constitutional duty and the individual rights of people to vote is something we take very seriously, so we鈥檙e going to explore all avenues to protect our constitution,鈥� he said.
Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet joined Weiser and Griswold at a press conference held at the Denver Elections Center.
All of the elected officials touted Colorado鈥檚 seven-year track record of conducting its statewide elections by mail.
鈥淲e here in Colorado can鈥檛 figure out why this has been made a partisan issue,鈥� Polis said, noting Republicans used mail-in ballots at a higher rate in the most recent primary election. 鈥淟ook no further than Colorado, where we have shown that voting by mail is safe, reliable, non-partisan and extremely popular.鈥�
Polis and the other elected officials said they had not heard of any postal service reductions in Colorado that might impact the state's ability to conduct the mail-in election.
鈥淏ut we need to be vigilant here,鈥� Bennet said.
Polis said he thinks more voters will use secure drop boxes this year instead of mailing their ballots back.
鈥淚t could very well be 80 to 90% (of voters) using drop boxes,鈥� he said.
