Whistleblower Flags Risks in USPS Mail Ballot Verification System

Voters in multiple states face uncertainty over whether mail ballots will reach them on schedule this fall. A federal executive order signed in March requires the Postal Service to verify that recipients appear on state-provided lists before delivering absentee ballots. A federal judge blocked key parts of that order, yet the agency continued work on an online portal to handle the checks.

The central tension is whether the portal can function without widespread delays if courts lift the block. An anonymous Postal Service official submitted a disclosure through Sen. Richard Blumenthal alleging the system was built in under three months, far less than the usual nine-to-twelve-month timeline. The disclosure describes a zero-percent failure policy under which a single unreadable barcode in a batch of thousands could reject the entire group and force repeated verification cycles.

Blumenthal sent the document to Postmaster General David Steiner on Monday and urged the agency to abandon the plan. The disclosure states that development resumed in late July even after an earlier court order and continued after a new restraining order issued last week. USPS has said in prior public statements that the portal would update lists immediately and that employees would not decide voter eligibility. Spokespeople did not respond to questions about the new claims.

The Trump administration appealed the Boston ruling to the First Circuit and maintains the order targets noncitizen voting. Studies and audits have found such voting extremely rare. North Carolina begins mailing ballots on Friday under state law; other states follow in the coming weeks. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the underlying directives.