As a kid, I was always excited when our mailman, Danny, rolled up to the house. He drove a Jeep, and his steering wheel was on the other side of the truck — like in the United Kingdom — so he could hop in and out of the vehicle faster.

When Danny arrived, it meant there was something new and exciting for me to open. Maybe a birthday or a holiday card. Maybe I would get a letter from a grandparent or a friend who lived in another area code.

Young people wouldn’t understand this today, but the mail was our connection to the outside world. There was no internet. We didn’t have cell phones. Long-distance phone calls cost money. Letters were the closest thing we had to free – just the cost of a stamp.

Today, the mail remains for many a connection to their civic duty. While I grew up voting in person with my parents, today I hear many stories of people gathering around their dining room table, filling out their mail-in ballot as they educate their children about the importance of voting.

But if Donald Trump gets his way, this tradition will be dead.

Trump has said he wants to eliminate mail voting entirely. And he is taking steps to carry out that plan.

Back in March, Trump signed an executive order demanding the creation of a national voter list. Only those on the list would be allowed to receive a mail-in ballot. The motivation behind this order is obvious: Trump wants to control who can vote.

Now, in response to the rule, the United States Postal Service is making states choose: hand over a list of voters they want to vote by mail, or say good-bye to mail-in voting.

It’s blackmail of the most obvious form: trying to force state leaders to hand over a list of citizens to a dangerous government that can’t be trusted, so that it can use deeply flawed lists to purge voters. This rule will disenfranchise Americans.

From the elderly to college students, millions rely on the United States Postal Service to deliver their ballots. For the Trump administration, this is not an accident. It is a tool.

I find it tragic that a tradition that once brought me so much joy — rushing to see what surprise Danny would bring me through the mail — is now part of a campaign to silence voters.

We will fight back — and we will win. And this November, kids will gather around the dining room table with their parents, help them fill out their ballot, and excitedly watch as their parents cast their vote through the mail.

What worried me this week

I’ve warned you about voter purges for some time now, and this week, I had more reason to worry. As Democracy Docket reported, in the Department of Justice’s filing seeking Georgia’s unredacted voter list, it argued that the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day “quiet period” does not block states from purging voters identified by the federal government.

The quiet period is a critical protection for voters, meant to prevent eligible voters from being wrongly kicked off the rolls too close to Election Day. It does not surprise me that the DOJ is targeting it — but it does concern me.

The DOJ claimed that the federal government isn't bound to the same 90-day quiet period as states, and could therefore conduct a systematic review of voters. This argument has implications far beyond the Peach State. The DOJ is laying the groundwork to make it easier to purge voters from the rolls. We should all be worried.

What I’m watching in the courts

What gave me hope this week

The Knicks won a nail-biter in the very last second of game four. At one point, they had been down by 29 points. It was the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. I don’t know why they can’t win like a normal team, but who am I to mess with their process?

My New York Knicks are up 3-1 as they head to San Antonio for game five, and that gives me hope.

Oh, and by the way, here’s what their star point guard, Jalen Brunson, said in an interview after the game:

“You’re allowed to think about the worst possible scenario. But you gotta go out there and do something about it.”

Words for us all to live by.