New Mail Voting Rules Moved Forward Despite USPS Officials’ Concerns About Mass Disenfranchisement

USPS Develops Mail Ballot Verification System Following Executive Order on Election Procedures

Top U.S. Postal Service officials discussed internal concerns during meetings about the design of new mail voting regulations required by a March executive order, including the risk that verification steps could delay batches of ballots if individual entries could not be confirmed, according to a person familiar with the process. The rules were issued despite those discussions.

A separate anonymous federal employee submitted a whistleblower disclosure to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal describing the development process as untested and subject to operational risks that could affect ballot delivery for the midterms. The disclosure stated that the system remained incomplete at the time of filing.

The executive order directed the Postal Service to establish procedures for states to submit lists of voters eligible for mail ballots and for USPS to use those lists in processing. The order was issued to address concerns over the verification of mail ballots and the security of election mail. USPS was assigned to build a portal for uploading voter data and backend systems to track ballots at mail facilities and local post offices.

Voting rights organizations, state officials, and Democratic-aligned groups filed lawsuits against the requirements. A federal court issued temporary injunctions blocking enforcement against states. The legal challenges are scheduled to reach the Supreme Court before the November election. Election officials have stated that even if the rules take effect, the timeline for implementation may not allow full operation before ballots for military and overseas voters are required to be mailed this month.

In internal meetings on compliance, officials examined methods to reduce effects on voters while meeting the order’s requirements, according to the person familiar with the discussions. One topic was whether to reject an entire batch of ballots when a single entry could not be verified. Some participants suggested processing ballots individually to limit any disruption. The final rule, however, retained a provision under which a single unverified barcode could result in return of the full batch to the state.

The whistleblower disclosure to Blumenthal described the batch-rejection mechanism in similar terms: “As presently designed, if even one bar code on one single ballot in a bulk-mailing of 10,000 ballots fails to properly scan during the verification process, the entire batch is rejected and sent back to the state.”

Election clerks raised comparable questions at a mid-August conference of the National Association of Election Officials in Kansas City. An example cited Maricopa County, Arizona, which mails more than 2 million ballots in a single initial distribution. USPS representatives at the meeting confirmed that one noncompliant barcode within such a volume could halt processing of the entire mailing, according to two attendees.

The Postal Service has stated in court filings that the rule does not transfer election administration authority from states and that its provisions “need not and should not prevent a single voter from voting by mail.” A spokesperson told ProPublica that the agency is reviewing the whistleblower disclosure and has developed the system in accordance with court orders. Instructions for state and local use are expected shortly.

“Regardless of political party or perspective, we share a common goal: ensuring that Americans can have confidence that their election mail will be handled securely and delivered reliably,” the spokesperson said.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis stated that the software requirements are comparable to existing USPS bulk-mail processes that already use intelligent mail barcodes for large-volume customers. “Under President Trump, the federal government is working to ensure safe, transparent, and honest elections,” Bis wrote.

Blumenthal, who received the disclosure, sent a letter to the postmaster general requesting additional details. He told reporters that the rule places mail voters at risk and characterized the administration’s actions as an effort to alter voting procedures.

Election officials and printing contractors have noted that accurate barcode placement on envelopes and maintenance of current voter addresses present technical challenges. Jeff Ellington, CEO of Runbeck Election Services, which produces ballot envelopes for multiple counties, said that decisions on file formats for voter lists and the choice between mailing and residential addresses remain unresolved. Most counties currently lack the specific barcode format required by the system, and USPS has not yet issued final specifications for envelope redesign or approval, according to Ellington.

The whistleblower disclosure highlighted the absence of documented error-rate testing for the new portal and verification process. It also alleged that some development work continued during periods covered by the court injunctions, contrary to USPS statements that implementation steps would not proceed while the injunctions remained in place.

Both the whistleblower and the person familiar with the internal meetings stated that development of a comparable tracking system would ordinarily require at least nine months. Work on the current system began in mid-June with a Sept. 1 target date. The person familiar with the discussions noted that compressed schedules have been applied to other agency priorities in the past, with the internal objective being either completion by the deadline or documentation of reasons for delay.

The disclosure described internal communication difficulties and compressed timelines during the development period.