USPS Whistleblower Warns Rushed Ballot Portal Risks Chaos
USPS Whistleblower Warns Rushed Ballot Portal Risks Chaos
The News
A Postal Service whistleblower says the agency is about to launch a rushed, untested computer system for verifying mail ballots that could get huge numbers of them rejected before November's midterm elections.
The disclosure, made public Tuesday, came from an anonymous official described by lawyers as a federal official and was provided to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut by the group Whistleblower Aid.
It warns of "potentially catastrophic problems" with the new Federal Ballot Mail Portal, built to carry out President Trump's executive order tightening mail voting rules — an order a federal judge has already blocked in part.
The whistleblower also alleges USPS staff kept working on the portal after court orders told the administration to stop.
What the whistleblower alleges
The portal is "untested" and will have "significant operating problems" when released because its development was "rushed," according to the disclosure.
The bigger problem is the verification math. The whistleblower says the Postal Service is operating on what amounts to a "zero percent failure rate": mail workers would scan a sample of a batch of ballots — roughly 400 out of a batch of 10,000 or more — and check them against the federal portal.
If a single barcode in that sample fails to scan, or the information does not match, the entire batch is rejected and returned to state election officials, and the verification process starts over.
The whistleblower's lawyers called the design "entirely unforgiving." It "could delay ballots by the thousands in repeated verification cycles — and thus prevent states from mailing enormous numbers of ballots," they wrote.
Their filing described "a foreseeable catastrophic disruption to our coming nationwide elections based on the reckless pursuit of readying a new, insufficiently tested, poorly planned mail-in ballot screening system."
According to the disclosure, the Postal Service aimed to have the portal ready for public rollout by Sept. 1.
Timeline
Trump signs the executive order restricting mail voting, saying "the cheating on mail-in voting is legendary." His administration has not produced evidence of widespread voter fraud, and Trump has himself voted by mail in Florida elections.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani blocks the administration from implementing key parts of the order, including the Postal Service plans, in a case brought by 23 Democratic-led states.
The Postal Service publishes its final rule setting new mail-ballot requirements: new envelope design standards, a unique barcode on ballot envelopes, and a requirement that state officials upload voters' names, addresses and barcodes to the federal portal.
The Supreme Court lifts Talwani's June order, finding the states' suit premature. A federal judge separately blocks enforcement of the new USPS rule; the Justice Department appeals.
Talwani issues a brief order saying USPS may build the portal and talk to states about design standards "so long as states' participation is not required." Blumenthal writes to Postmaster General David Steiner the same day.
The whistleblower disclosure is made public.
Reactions
"The main takeaway for me is that the Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans," Blumenthal told reporters. "One third of all Americans cast their ballots by mail, and the USPS puts all of their votes at risk."
Blumenthal called the agency's conduct "sabotage." In his letter to Steiner he wrote that implementation of the order has been "perilously rushed and potentially unlawful," and said the allegations show "USPS lacks the technical or operational capability needed to effectively implement the EO's provisions in a way that safeguards every citizen's right to vote in the upcoming midterm elections."
The Postal Service did not immediately return a request for comment. The agency has said it "will not play any role in determining voter eligibility, maintaining voter rolls, or counting ballots."
David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the process raises "tremendous" concerns about disenfranchisement and that the rules "would undoubtedly create a tremendous number of hoops that are completely unnecessary and do nothing for election integrity."
State election officials are telling clerks to carry on as normal. Wisconsin's Elections Commission told local clerks the restraining order "preserves the status quo," meaning officials "are not required to comply with the new requirements of the USPS rule at this time and can proceed to issue and mail absentee ballots normally." The commission noted the portal "does not exist" and that USPS has provided no training on it.
What's Next
The clock is the story. North Carolina begins sending mail ballots to some voters Friday, and several other states make mail ballots available around mid-September, according to the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
The Justice Department's appeal of the order blocking the USPS rule is pending, and the directive may end up back before the Supreme Court. When the justices lifted the earlier injunction last week, they cautioned that the ruling "does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell."
Blumenthal is pressing Steiner for answers and has urged the Postal Service to walk back its mail-voting plans for this election.
More
Roughly one-third of American voters cast ballots by mail. Six states run their elections entirely by mail, and four more plus the District of Columbia send ballots to all voters without having eliminated in-person voting.
Mail voting splits sharply along party lines. In a CBS News poll in March, 77% of Democrats said anyone should be allowed to vote by mail, compared with 25% of Republicans; independents split, with 49% in favor.
Beyond the executive order, Trump has pushed Congress to pass a voting package that would outlaw mail voting with some exceptions and impose proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration. Democratic-led states argue the Constitution gives states, not the federal government, the power to set election rules.
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