By Erica Irish 
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — The federal government is facing new legal challenges from states arguing a funding crisis in the United States Postal Service puts citizens’ right to vote, access to medicine, and other necessities at risk.

More than 20 states have filed lawsuits in recent days, alleging recent changes to the postal service, including removing mailboxes and mail sorting machines from communities, is slowing mail delivery at a critical time for Americans.

Of chief concern is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has prompted major shifts in how the November election will be managed.

The first lawsuit is being led by the state of Washington and is joined by 13 other states. A separate lawsuit was filed by the state of Pennsylvania and is joined by six other states, including California, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina and D.C.

Indiana has yet to file a lawsuit of its own or join in the existing lawsuits, and some of its immediate neighbors — Kentucky and Ohio — are not involved at this time.

Attorney General Curtis Hill said in a statement Indiana won’t join the current lawsuits or file its own because the current arguments don’t raise legitimate concerns and target the wrong source — the Trump administration — for “decades of bureaucratic failure at the Postal Service.”

“This is yet another example of activists attempting to enact their preferred policies through the courts and should be soundly rejected,” Hill said.

Hill added it wouldn’t make sense for Indiana to file a lawsuit because election administrators have so far refused to expand mail-in voting options for the general election. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Secretary of State Connie Lawson have both stood by voting in person as a safe option during the pandemic.

“The lawsuits are predicated on expanded rights to cast mail-in ballots during the pandemic, which Indiana has not granted. And the states that have done so knew about problems with the Postal Service before they chose to expand mail-in voting,” Hill said. “If those states are suddenly concerned about potential post office failures, they should encourage and focus on in-person voting or permit ballots to be returned by FedEx or hand delivery.”

Hill, a Republican, narrowly lost his party’s nomination to former Congressman Todd Rokita, who is now running to replace him in November. But Hill remains in office as the debate around the postal service intensifies.

Jonathan Weinzapfel, a Democrat running for state attorney general, said in a statement Tuesday Indiana should follow the example of other states and sue.

“Hoosiers, especially those in rural communities, depend on the postal service for the delivery of medicine, checks and come this November, their right to vote,” Weinzapfel said. “We can’t allow it to be destroyed.”

Weinzapfel issued the statement one day after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appeared before the majority-Democrat House Oversight Committee in Congress. The U.S. House recently passed a bill to offer the postal service an additional $25 billion in funding ahead of the added workload that could be caused by mail-in voting.

FOOTNOTE: Erica Irish is the 2020 Russell Pulliam editor for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.