One-third of Americans vote by mail. But a new report says a rushed USPS system could put those ballots in jeopardy

An official inside the U.S. Postal Service alleged that the agency is pressing ahead with a “secretive, rushed” push to carry out President Trump’s order placing federal control over mail voting. The official said that work is moving forward even though a court has blocked the plans. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office published the whistle-blower report on Tuesday morning.

The official called the rollout of the order “risky and haphazard” and said it could produce a “catastrophic failure” in the mail ballot system before the midterm elections. The report stated that the Postal Service had planned to finish a new digital system for overseeing mail ballots by Sept. 1.

“Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,” the official said in the report, which Whistleblower Aid helped prepare. Speaking to reporters by phone on Monday, Blumenthal said, “the main takeaway for me is that the Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans. One-third of all Americans cast their ballots by mail, and the U.S.P.S. puts all of their votes at risk.” A Postal Service official declined to comment on the record.

Report says Postal Service kept building mail ballot software after judges stepped in

The report said mail voting could grow much harder for tens of millions of Americans if the Postal Service puts in place the limits Trump has demanded. Trump has repeatedly called mail-in voting “cheating,” “corrupt” and “horrible.” The source material noted that he voted by mail in two elections this year. The Supreme Court also let Trump move forward with his mail voting order, while a separate injunction complicates matters. 

Legal challenges over election rules have piled up with about two months left until the midterms, the account stated. The changes could hit states with close races for the House, Senate, and governor, especially hard.

Michigan saw 37 percent of its votes cast by mail in 2022, according to The New York Times. That state has competitive statewide contests and several battleground House seats. California mails a ballot to every registered voter and is described as central to Democratic efforts to win the House.

The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with the mail ballot executive order. The court said a lawsuit against the order was premature because the administration had not yet started to carry out its plans, according to the source material.

Days before that ruling, the Postal Service published a formal plan to follow the executive order. Judge Indira Talwani, a federal district judge in Massachusetts, then temporarily blocked the plan. She concluded that the agency’s plan appeared to go beyond its legal mandate and could cause chaos by changing rules a little more than two months before an election.

The whistle-blower report described a rapid effort to build the new digital system for mail ballots even after a federal appeals court had blocked the plan, before the Supreme Court later acted. The report said work on the system also continued after Judge Talwani ordered a halt last week. Trump has called mail-in voting fraudulent for years, but public records show he mailed in his vote for a Florida special election. 

The official raised “grave concerns” that the verification process could reject tens of thousands of ballots in a single bulk mailing if “even one bar code on one single ballot” failed to scan. The official said the rushed, “slapdash” development of the system would raise the chance of errors and other failures during verification.