Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)

@hansilowang

@npr.org correspondent reporting on voting, the Census Bureau and the U.S. Postal Service • signal: hansi.01 • email: hwang@npr.org • newsletter: hansilowang.com/stay-in-touch

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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· 1d

Thanks for reading. According to page 8 of the 2026 election guide by the Rhode Island Department of State, Aug. 10 is the final date for voter registration for primaries: vote.sos.ri.gov/Forms/Electi...

August 10
Deadline to register to vote and to file disaffiliation - primaries
Final date for voter registration for primaries. Registration must be made
at least 30 days prior to the primary. [RIGL §§§17-1-3, 17-1-7, 17-9.1-3]
Deadline for voters to disaffiliate (if necessary) in order to vote in a
different party’s primary. If you wish to disaffiliate you must do so at least
30 days prior to the primary. Unaffiliated voters may vote in any party’s
primary. [RIGL §17-9.1-24(a)]

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· 4d

NEW: The self-funded U.S. Postal Service — which relies on stamp and service fees, not tax dollars, to keep running — posted a net loss of $2.5 billion in this fiscal year’s third quarter, USPS CFO Luke Grossmann told the mailing agency’s Board of Governors

Screen grab of a slide showing the U.S. Postal Service's net loss of $2.5 billion in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· 7d

NEW: The Trump administration's recent banning of a data privacy protection technique that the Census Bureau used for decades has delayed the release of one-year estimates from the American Community Survey, which many local community leaders and researchers rely on www.census.gov/newsroom/pre...

2025 ACS 1-Year Estimates

The release date for the 2025 ACS 1-year estimates is being determined. The Census Bureau is assessing the impact of the new departmental administrative order (DAO), Department of Commerce Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products, and seeking DAO-compliant solutions to allow the release of the ACS 1-year tables later this year.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· 13d

NEW: The U.S. Postal Service did not meet its own performance goals in fiscal year 2025, according to the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent federal agency that oversees USPS prc.arkcase.com/api/prc-dock...

Screen grab showing the fiscal year 2025 performance indicators that the U.S. Postal Service met or failed to meet

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jul 2

3. UPDATE: New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has signed into law the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey t.e2ma.net/message/vlyv...

Governor Sherrill Signs Historic Legislation Making New Jersey First State to Enact Voting Rights Reform Following Supreme Court Decision

TRENTON – Today, the Sherrill Caldwell Administration signed the following bills into law:

ACS for A-1715/SCS for S-282 (Reynolds-Jackson/Turner, Cryan, Scutari) - Establishes "John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey." With the signing of this bill, New Jersey becomes the first state to enact voting rights reform following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 29

NEW: The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the Trump administration to weigh in on a lower court ruling that found it violates the Constitution to not count Pennsylvania mail ballots that arrive on time but are missing handwritten dates on their envelopes www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

25-962 ) REPUBLICAN NAT. COMM., ET AL. V. EAKIN, BETTE, ET AL.
25-967 ) PENNSYLVANIA V. EAKIN, BETTE, ET AL.
The motion of Professor Michael T. Morley, et al. for leave to file a brief as amici curiae is granted. The Solicitor General is invited to file a brief in these cases expressing the views of the United States.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 29

NEW: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an Arizona-based case about the scope of the National Voter Registration Act's longstanding ban on mass voter roll purges within 90 days before Election Day, among other issues www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

25-1017 REPUBLICAN NAT. COMM. V. MI FAMILIA VOTA, ET AL.
The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 24

BREAKING: The U.S. Postal Service now projects it may run out of cash sometime between 2031 and 2034, not next year, Postmaster General David Steiner tells Congress, warning that finances at the self-funded mailing agency remain shaky about.usps.com/newsroom/tes...

Screen grab of charts showing USPS projected unrestricted cash positions

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 23

No, the ruling by the 8th Circuit panel that the Supreme Court has left standing is quoting the Voting Rights Act's use of the term "Attorney General," which is referring to the U.S. attorney general. This is from page 7: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Screen grab of page 7 of the 8th Circuit panel's ruling

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 22

BREAKING: The Supreme Court leaves in place a ruling that severely limits enforcement of Voting Rights Act protections for voters with a disability or an inability to read or write in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

CERTIORARI DENIED
....
25-890 ARKANSAS UNITED, ET AL. V. THURSTON, SEC., ET AL.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 16

NEW: Multiple webpages on the Census Bureau's website are unavailable to the public more than a week after the Trump administration issued a ban on "noise infusion," one of the bureau's main ways of protecting people's privacy when it releases statistics

Screen grab of a page on the Census Bureau's website saying: "404: Page Not Found ... Sorry, the page you requested has either been moved or is no longer available."

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 8

NEW: The Trump administration is banning one of the Census Bureau's main ways of protecting the confidentiality of people's responses to the #2030Census and other surveys — added statistical "noise," or data for fuzzing survey results www.commerce.gov/opog/disclos...

.02 The Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis shall adhere to the following order of priority when considering and applying Disclosure Avoidance:

a. Coarsening shall be the preferred category of Disclosure Avoidance methods for all statistical products.

b. Suppression shall be permitted as a last resort, only to be used when coarsening is prohibited by law or would substantially defeat the accuracy or usability of a statistical product.

c. Noise infusion shall not be used for any statistical product.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Jun 5

NEW: The U.S. Postal Service is no longer expected to run out of cash and stop deliveries next year, the Postal Regulatory Commission's Acting Chair Robert Taub told a House oversight subcommittee, after regulators suspended USPS' required retirement payments oversight.house.gov/wp-content/u...

To that end, the Commission recently provided the Postal Service a total of potentially $15 billion or more in relief through FY 2030 and averted a cash crisis in the near term by issuing a waiver of its regulations requiring minimum retirement payments. The Commission’s action offers some “breathing room” and extends the time period before the Postal Service’s “reported insolvency” and the stated crises of stopping mail delivery to at least another several years provided the Postal Service makes judicious decisions about its expenditures starting now.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 28

BREAKING: A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has declined to block President Trump’s executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail. Another judge may rule on the order as soon as early June www.courtlistener.com/docket/73131...

The Court recognizes that the Postal Service may ultimately issue a final rule that directly affects Plaintiffs or their members, or that the Government may develop State Citizenship Lists that omit specific individuals due to particularized flaws. Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur. Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted. For those reasons, discussed in more detail below, Plaintiffs’ motions are denied.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 18

2. These are the 17 voting maps or election systems for state/local governments that may be affected by the Supreme Court's latest weakening of the Voting Rights Act, based on a recent analysis of federal court filings that I did for this @npr.org story: www.npr.org/2026/05/18/n...

Screen grab of the first page of a chart showing the lawsuits over voting in at least 17 state and local governments are reckoning with the Supreme Court's ruling

LOCATION, CHALLENGED VOTING MAP OR SYSTEM, CHALLENGERS
Alabama, State legislative, Black voters
Georgia, State legislative, Black voters
Louisiana, State legislative, Black voters
Mississippi, State legislative, Black voters
North Dakota, State legislative, Native American voters
Texas, State legislative, Latino voters
Washington, State legislative, Latino voters
Mississippi, State Supreme Court, Black voters
Mississippi — DeSoto County, County offices, Black voters
Alabama — Madison County, County commission, Black voters

Screen grab of the second page of a chart showing the lawsuits over voting in at least 17 state and local governments are reckoning with the Supreme Court's ruling

LOCATION, CHALLENGED VOTING MAP OR SYSTEM, CHALLENGERS
Georgia — Houston County, At-large county commission, Black voters
Georgia — Meriwether County, County commission, Black voters
Louisiana — Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Metropolitan council, Black voters
Pennsylvania — Hazleton Area School District, At-large school board, Latino voters
Texas — Keller Independent School District, At-large school board, Latino voters
Texas — Pearland Independent School District, At-large school board, Black, Latino and Asian American voters
Texas — Spring Branch Independent School District, At-large school board, Black, Latino and Asian American voters

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 18

2. These redistricting cases out of North Dakota & Mississippi are about whether private individuals and groups — whose lawsuits have been the main way of enforcing the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 — can keep suing, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson notes in dissents from the Supreme Court's orders:

25-234 BD. OF ELECTION COMM'RS, ET AL. V. NAACP, ET AL.
The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi for further consideration in light of Louisiana v. Callais, 608 U. S. ___ (2026). Justice Jackson, dissenting: This case presents only the question of Section 2’s private enforceability, which our decision in Louisiana v. Callais, 608 U. S. ___ (2026), did not address. Thus I see no basis for vacating the lower court’s judgment. Instead, in light of Morse v. Republican Party of Va., 517 U. S. 186 (1996), I would summarily affirm.

25-253 TURTLE MOUNTAIN BAND, ET AL. V. HOWE, SEC. OF STATE OF ND
The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for further consideration in light of Louisiana v. Callais, 608 U. S. ___ (2026). Justice Jackson, dissenting: This case presents only the question of Section 2’s private enforceability, which our decision in Louisiana v. Callais, 608 U. S. ___ (2026), did not address. Thus I see no basis for vacating the lower court’s judgment. Instead, in light of Morse v. Republican Party of Va., 517 U. S. 186 (1996), I would summarily reverse.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 15

NEW: The Census Bureau stopped plans to use an updated question about race and ethnicity in the 2027 American Community Survey after a White House agency delayed the deadline for agency plans for complying with revised government standards on racial and ethnic data www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PR...

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in ROCIS.

In light of OMB’s March 27, 2026 announcement of a one-year extension to submit an Action Plan for compliance with the updates to Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, the Census Bureau will use the 1997 standards in the American Community Survey and the Puerto Rico Community Survey, and will use the delayed deadline to continue to develop implementation plans for the 2024 standards.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 13

NEW: The Census Bureau's latest Federal Register notice about the 2027 American Community Survey makes no mention of the updated question about race and ethnicity it said last year it was proposing to include www.federalregister.gov/public-inspe... LEFT: December 2025 notice RIGHT: May 2026 notice

In 2027, the ACS plans to introduce an internet self-response option to the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) data collection operation. The Census Bureau believes there is value in offering an internet self-response option to households and people living in certain types of group quarters—

college/university student housing, group homes, military barracks, workers' group living quarters, and emergency and transitional shelters in Puerto Rico.

In addition to the internet self-response option for PRCS, the proposed content for the 2027 ACS and PRCS includes the updated race and ethnicity question, which follows OMB's 2024 Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (SPD 15). Currently, race and ethnicity data are collected and tabulated following OMB's 1997 SPD 15 on Federal race and ethnicity data standards.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 11

NEW: The Supreme Court is set to discuss on May 14 how it will handle a set of cases about whether private individuals and groups — whose lawsuits have been the main way of enforcing the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 — can keep suing www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?...

DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/14/2026.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 8

NEW: The U.S. Postal Service — which relies on stamp and service fees, not tax dollars, to keep running — posted a net loss of $2 billion in this fiscal year’s 2nd quarter, USPS officials say after telling Congress in March that it's months away from running out of cash news.usps.com/2026/05/08/u...

- Revenue. Total operating revenue was $20.2 billion for the quarter, a 2.3 percent increase compared with the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. The increase was due to price increases in the shipping and packages, Marketing Mail and First-Class Mail categories.

• Volume. Total volume was 25.6 billion pieces, down 3.4 percent compared with the same quarter one year ago. First-Class Mail volume declined 6.3 percent, while Marketing Mail volume declined 0.9 percent. Shipping and packages volume declined 1.4 percent.

• Expenses. Under generally accepted accounting principles, total operating expenses were $22.1 billion for the quarter, a decrease of 4.1 percent compared with the same quarter one year ago. The overall decrease in operating expenses was primarily because of the effect of discount rates on workers’ compensation costs and the actuarial revaluation of existing workers’ compensation cases.

• Net loss. Net loss for the quarter totaled $2 billion, compared with a net loss of $3.3 billion for the same quarter last year. The $1.3 billion decrease is attributed to an operating revenue increase of $463 million and a decrease in workers’ compensation expenses of $1.3 billion.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 8

NEW: The Census Bureau’s internal watchdog starts a review of the “2026 Census Test,” a field test of the #2030Census in Huntsville, Ala., and Spartanburg, S.C., that the Trump administration downsized, according to this Commerce Dept inspector general’s office memo www.oig.doc.gov/evaluation-o...

We are initiating an evaluation of the 2026 Census Test operations. Our objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2026 Census Test in validating operational, technological, and methodological innovations designed to enhance cost efficiency, data quality, and response rates for the 2030 census.

We plan to begin this work immediately. We will contact your audit liaison to schedule an entrance conference, at which time we will discuss the specific nature of our evaluation with you, including our objective and scope, time frames, and any potential requests for
data.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 6

NEW: The Supreme Court rejects the request by Black voters represented by voting rights advocates to recall the court's order for finalizing its ruling that weakens the Voting Rights Act, keeping a clear path for the GOP push for a new Louisiana congressional map www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

The motion of Press Robinson, et al. to recall the judgment is denied.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 5

NEW: In a move that may further complicate the GOP push for a new Louisiana congressional map, Black voters repped by @aclu.org @legaldefensefund.bsky.social ask the Supreme Court to recall the order for finalizing its ruling that weakens the Voting Rights Act www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...

The sole basis cited in the Order for granting Appellees’ Application and issuing the judgment forthwith was that “[Robinson Appellants] have not expressed any intent to ask this Court to reconsider its judgment.” However, in the second sentence of Appellants’ opposition to the Application, Appellants requested “the opportunity to consider seeking rehearing.” See Robinson Appellants’ Response to Appellees’ Application for Issuance of a Copy of the Opinion and Certified Copy of the Judgment Forthwith, at 2, No. 25A1197 (Apr. 30, 2026). In support, Appellants cited Rule 44.1, noting that it allows parties twenty-five days to seek rehearing of any judgment of this Court. Appellants intend to request rehearing in this case, and, accordingly, respectfully request that this Court recall the judgment, reconsider its order granting the Application, and deny the Application. Alternatively, Appellants respectfully ask the Court to recall the judgment and provide them fifteen days from the date of its decision in this case, or until May 14, 2026, to seek rehearing.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 5

NEW: The U.S. Postal Service inspector general’s office found that USPS "successfully managed" its peak mail season during the end of 2025 partly due to processing changes, service standard changes and decreased mail volume compared to 2024 www.uspsoig.gov/reports/audi...

What We Found

In general, the Postal Service successfully managed the FY 2026 peak and post-peak mailing seasons. Effective implementation of strategic initiatives, coupled with decreased mail volume and a service standard change, helped to improve service performance across all mail products when compared to the FY 2025 peak and post-peak mailing seasons. Key improvements included deployment of package processing equipment, increased staffing, and preventing and recovering packages that lacked proper scans or were missent. Lastly, while the Postal Service effectively reduced extra and canceled trips within highway transportation, it experienced challenges with estimating capacity limits within air transportation.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 4

3. CORRECTION: I deleted this earlier post, which incorrectly said Louisiana made the request for the Supreme Court to speed up finalizing its ruling. In fact, the request was made by a group of self-described "non-African-American" voters who challenged the state's current congressional map

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· May 1

7. The "2026 Census Test" form is so long that the bureau has acknowledged that census workers and letter carriers will likely not have time to ask all of the questions. Here's how the Census Bureau responded to my questions about that:

4. What specific American Community Survey questions will be part of the "smaller subset of questions" that "will be asked for households who do not respond on their own"?

The Census Bureau is using the ACS questionnaire but subject to a time limit to keep in mind respondent burden and ensure postal operations are not impeded.

5. How did the Census Bureau decide which survey questions will be included in the "smaller subset"?

The Census Bureau is using the ACS questionnaire but subject to a time limit to keep in mind respondent burden and ensure postal operations are not impeded.

6. Why is the Census Bureau not planning to ask households who do not respond on their own the full set of American Community Survey questions?

Questions will be subject to a time limit to keep in mind respondent burden and ensure postal operations are not impeded.

7. How will the Census Bureau decide which households who do not respond on their own will get a visit from a census taker and/or postal worker?

The Census Bureau will carefully plan work assignments for census takers (including postal workers) so that each worker is assigned a manageable number of households. We’ll also take into consideration that some households may need multiple visits.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Apr 30

NEW: Alabama is asking the Supreme Court to speed up its consideration of whether to review the state's congressional map again after the court further weakened the Voting Rights Act www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

MOTION TO EXPEDITE CONSIDERATION OF JURISDICTIONAL STATEMENT AND OF THIS MOTION

Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 21, Secretary Wes Allen, in his official capacity as the Alabama Secretary of State, and Senator Steve Livingston and Representative Chris Pringle, in their official capacities as Senate Chair and House Chair of the Alabama Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment (the “Movants”), respectfully move for expedited consideration of their jurisdictional statements in Allen
v. Singleton (No. 25-273) and Allen v. Milligan (No. 25-274) and their petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment in Allen v. Caster (No. 25-243) in light of this Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais (No. 24-109). Expedited consideration is necessary to afford Alabama the same opportunity as other States to use a lawfully enacted congressional map free of an injunction that cannot be reconciled with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act “as properly construed.” Callais, Slip Op. 3.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Apr 30

9. A chart by @ruhlmuk.bsky.social and me for context: Black-represented House districts were in the single digits or at zero for a century after the Civil War. Since the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that number has grown to 63 districts. Now we watch for a potential historic drop...

A line graph showing the number of U.S. House districts represented by a Black member of Congress by session from 1869 to present

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Apr 27

NEW: Sen. @durbin.senate.gov leads nine fellow Senate Democrats in proposing an amendment to the Constitution that would enshrine an explicit, individual right to vote www.durbin.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

‘SECTION 1. Every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.
‘‘SECTION 2. The fundamental right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State or political subdivision within a State unless such denial or abridgment is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the10
least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.
‘‘SECTION 3. The portion of section 2 of the fourteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States that consists of the phrase ‘or other crime,’ is repealed.
‘‘SECTION 4. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article and protect against any denial or abridgement of the fundamental right to vote by legislation.’’

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang· Apr 24

NEW: The top Democrats on the House Oversight and Administration committees — Reps. @robertgarcia.house.gov & @morelle.house.gov — ask the U.S. Postal Service to confirm by May 1 whether USPS will carry out President Trump’s executive order on mail voting oversightdemocrats.house.gov/imo/media/do...