Postal Service work to comply with Trump's executive order is rushed,
sloppy, whistleblower contends
[September 02, 2026]
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
The U.S. Postal Service is poised to launch a hastily built,
error-riddled computer system that could jeopardize the process of mail
voting relied upon by one-third of all voters, according to a
whistleblower statement released Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Richard
Blumenthal.
The effort is part of the implementation of President Donald Trump's
executive order limiting mail voting and has been temporarily halted by
a federal judge. The ruling is being appealed by the administration and
the directive may ultimately end up back before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The disclosure from the unidentified whistleblower contends that the
Postal Service has been scrambling to try to build a complex system that
would normally take a year or more in only three months, sometimes in
defiance of the judge's orders halting work. The goal is to have it
ready for use in the midterm elections.
The disclosure contends that, due to the new procedures, a single
scanning error in a batch of tens of thousands of ballot envelopes could
prevent any from reaching voters. It details a system that election
officials have already warned could not be implemented before the first
mail ballots begin going out Friday in North Carolina.
“The Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of
Americans,” Blumenthal told reporters in advance of releasing the
whistleblower information. “This administration seems hell-bent on
changing the framework on casting ballots in this country clearly for
political reasons.”
Executive order is subject to furious court action with midterms
nearing
Trump’s executive order, signed in March, directed U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security
Administration to develop state citizenship lists and then required the
Postal Service to send mail ballots only to voters who are on such a
list. Ballot envelopes would have to comply with new Postal Service
rules and include barcodes.
The online portal that is the subject of the whistleblower complaint is
intended for states to deliver their lists of verified voters to the
Postal Service.
The Postal Service released a statement Tuesday evening in response to
Blumenthal's letter, pledging to work with Congress and the courts. It
noted that the judge who issued the latest restraining order explicitly
allowed the service to continue to develop its online tool for states
that want to use it voluntarily.
“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 Postal Service
said.
The White House said the software buildout process is “neither complex
nor unique” for the Postal Service because it already uses bulk mailing
and intelligent mail barcodes for large customers. “Under President
Trump, the federal government is working to ensure safe, transparent,
and honest elections," spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.
Jonathan Smith, president of the United Postal Workers Union, which has
long opposed the executive order, said in a statement Tuesday: “The
whistleblower report reveals what this executive order was always about
— denying Americans their hard-fought right to vote. It is creating
chaos in a system that is proven to be a safe, secure way for millions
of Americans to vote.”
The 20 Democratic House members who sit on the Oversight Committee wrote
a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner criticizing the project in
light of the new revelations. "We demand that you immediately cease
implementation of this irresponsible and illegal scheme to implement the
Trump Administration’s plan to control our federal elections,” the
Democrats wrote.
Trump has long opposed voting by mail, even though he has repeatedly
used the method to cast his own ballot. He falsely blamed mail voting
for his 2020 election loss and has spent years spreading conspiracy
theories about it. A report by the Brookings Institution published in
2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out
of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Since returning to office, Trump has said Republicans should be “taking
over” vote counting in Democratic areas and launched a sweeping attempt
to reinvestigate the 2020 election, despite a mountain of evidence that
he lost fairly to Democrat Joe Biden.
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Delivery vans are parked during a protest staged as part of a
countrywide National Day of Action Tuesday, July 28, 2026, outside
the main United States Postal Service headquarters in northeast
Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
Until Trump came out against mail voting in 2020, the system was used
equally by both parties. Since then, it has become more common among
Democratic voters. More than 29% of all voters in 2024 cast their
ballots through the mail.
After Trump issued his executive order, Democrats and civil rights
groups sued and eventually won a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge
Indira Talwani in Boston barring implementation of the system before the
November midterms. But without ruling on the legality of Trump's order,
the Supreme Court's conservative majority last week found that was
premature and overruled Talwani, momentarily clearing the way for its
implementation.
On the night of Aug. 21, the Postal Service released a final rule
outlining how it would implement the order.
It said it would only send mail ballots for states that got approval for
the design of their envelopes and submitted a list of voters receiving
them through the still-not-active online portal. That rule gave
plaintiffs a chance to sue again, and Talwani on Thursday night issued a
14-day restraining order against implementation of the measure.
Whistleblower complaint says portal development is rushed and sloppy
The letter from Blumenthal and an accompanying summary of the
whistleblower's statements says the Postal Service began work on the
portal on June 15 and stopped on June 25 after Talwani's initial order.
Then on July 29, the Postal Service restarted the work. That was when
the administration appealed the judge's order to the Supreme Court. The
high court did not strike Talwani's injunction down until Aug. 24.
Talwani last week found the Postal Service violated her order by
continuing to work on the final rule, but she imposed no sanctions on
the government. On Monday, she issued a ruling refusing to lift the
restraining order that also said the Postal Service could continue work
on its portal, as long as it wasn't forcing states to use it.
In its summary of the whistleblower's statement, the group Whistleblower
Aid says the hurried construction of the portal, with a goal of being
active Tuesday, meant it did not undergo full testing.
“The apparently sloppy and rushed manner in which the Federal Ballot
Mail Portal and supporting IT systems are being built poses significant
risk,” the group wrote. “Potentially millions of American voters may not
receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or
at all.”
The statement also says the Postal Service is implementing a “zero
percent” rule in which any errors in any mail ballots sent out by an
election office could lead to all of them being discarded — even if it's
simply one problem amid tens of thousands of legitimate ballots.
The rule requires ballots to be handled in a physical post office by an
election official. Those will then be scanned to ensure they match the
voter database. During three layers of checks, a single apparent error
could cause the whole batch to be rejected, the statement says.
Blumenthal said he has “a very strong hope and some faith that our
system of justice will strike down this unconstitutional and
unconscionable rule.” But, he added, if it somehow goes into effect for
the midterms, he would not advise voting by mail.
___
Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.
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