USPS Whistleblower Warns Trump Mail Voting Rule Could Delay Thousands of Ballots

A U.S. Postal Service whistleblower is warning that a system developed to carry out President Donald Trump’s mail voting rule could delay thousands of ballots ahead of the November midterms, including a shipment of 10,000 ballots if just one fails verification.

The anonymous federal official, represented by Whistleblower Aid, alleges USPS rushed development of its new Federal Ballot Mail Portal and related technology without adequate testing. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut released the disclosure Tuesday.

The system was developed in response to a March executive order from Trump directing USPS to impose new requirements on mail ballots used in federal elections. The Postal Service later issued a rule requiring election officials to meet new envelope standards, use unique barcodes and upload information about ballot recipients to the federal portal before ballots are accepted for delivery.

Key portions of the rule are currently blocked in federal court. The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to allow the requirements to take effect before the November election.

The whistleblower claims the technology has not undergone the level of testing normally expected for a project of its size. Work began in earnest around June with officials seeking a Sept. 1 launch, according to the disclosure, although the official said comparable projects can take nine months to a year or longer.

Under the system described in the disclosure, USPS would compare ballot barcodes with information uploaded by election officials and apply a zero percent failure standard. If one barcode selected for verification does not match, the whistleblower claims the entire shipment could be rejected and returned for correction.

A mismatch could result from a voter recently moving or changing a name, according to the disclosure. In a batch of 10,000 ballots, one failed verification could delay the entire shipment from entering the mail until election officials resolve the problem.

The rule is also the subject of a broader legal challenge over whether the president and USPS have authority to impose the requirements.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has temporarily blocked key portions of the policy while lawsuits brought by states and voting rights groups proceed. In an Aug. 27 ruling, Talwani found the challengers were likely to succeed on claims that USPS exceeded its authority and that the rule interfered with states’ constitutional role in administering elections.

One of those claims centers on the Elections Clause of the Constitution, which gives states primary responsibility for setting the rules governing congressional elections while giving Congress authority to make or alter those rules. The challengers argue that the president has no comparable power to establish election rules and cannot use a federal agency to impose requirements that Congress itself has not enacted.

The lawsuits also raise an administrative law question over the limits of USPS authority. Federal agencies generally may act only within the powers Congress has granted them. The challengers argue that USPS has authority to set standards governing the preparation and delivery of mail, but not to operate a system that checks voter information and determines whether states’ ballot shipments can enter the postal network.

USPS disputes that argument and maintains that the rule concerns postal operations rather than election administration. The agency has said it would not determine voter eligibility, maintain state voter rolls or decide whether completed ballots may be counted.

The whistleblower separately alleges that development of the system continued while court orders restricted implementation of Trump’s directive. Talwani found in August that USPS violated an earlier injunction by completing its final rule while the court had barred the agency from finishing that process.

The Justice Department is seeking to overturn the latest temporary order at the First Circuit. Talwani is also scheduled to consider whether a longer block on the rule should remain in place. The contested USPS requirements remain suspended as the litigation continues ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.