USPS Whistleblower Report Alleges Flaws in New Mail-Ballot System Ahead of November Midterms
U.S. PoliticsWell-covered
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The Facts
- Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal released a whistleblower report on Tuesday about a new USPS mail-ballot verification system.
- The whistleblower is an anonymous federal official represented by the nonprofit group Whistleblower Aid.
- The report says millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballots before the November midterm elections.
- The whistleblower describes the building of the ballot mail portal and supporting IT systems as sloppy and rushed.
- The system implements Trump's March executive order directing USPS to mail ballots only to people on federal eligibility lists.
- The whistleblower alleges an entire batch of ballots could be rejected if one sampled barcode fails to scan or match.
- Roughly a third of US voters cast their ballots by mail.
- A federal judge blocked parts of the executive order, and litigation over its legality is continuing.
- Blumenthal wrote to Postmaster General David Steiner seeking documents and answers about the system.
- Homeland Security Investigations began a coordinated criminal voter fraud investigation initiative in early September across several states.
Context
What does Trump's March executive order require?
It directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of citizens eligible to vote in each state and transmit them to states, and directs the Justice Department to prioritize prosecuting state and local election officials who issue ballots to people deemed ineligible ThePrint. It also asks USPS to mail ballots only to people on those federal lists Telemundo, and the postal program under development would refuse to deliver ballots to people the federal government deems ineligible Gizmodo.
What is the 'zero percent failure' policy the whistleblower describes?
Postal workers would check samples from large batches of outgoing ballots against federal voter information before accepting them for delivery, and the whistleblower alleges USPS adopted a policy under which an entire batch could be rejected if a single sampled barcode fails to scan or match NZ Herald. Blumenthal described this as an 'impracticable zero percent failure rate' mint. In the whistleblower's example, one problematic ballot in a mailing of 10,000 could hold up the other 9,999 until the discrepancy is resolved NZ Herald.
How are states and election officials responding?
In court filings and interviews with CNN, election officials and mail voting experts said there is no practical way to comply with the Postal Service's plans, even if states find the millions of dollars they expect compliance to cost; the administration has described the rules as a 'modest' change CNN International. Blumenthal's letter to Postmaster General David Steiner asked for explanations by Friday SudOuest.fr, and 24 states have moved to sue the Postal Service over the mail-ballot restrictions Zero Hedge.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- A build a federal official calls sloppy and rushed — where one failed barcode scan could void an entire batch — is a defect neither side is willing to defend.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about an untested system threatening to strip millions of a ballot, or about sound eligibility verification let down by bad engineering.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over trust in intent, not facts: the left reads a rushed build as inseparable from an order designed to shrink mail voting, the right reads it as fixable engineering attached to a legitimate eligibility rule — no audit settles motive.
- Watch for
- Judge Indira Talwani's Thursday hearing on whether to convert her 14-day block into a longer preliminary injunction, and whether the 1st Circuit grants the administration's emergency request to lift it first.Washington Examiner
How left and right read it
The right to vote should never rest on untested code. Roughly a third of voters cast ballots by mail, so a system a federal official calls sloppy and rushed — one where a single barcode that fails to scan could sink an entire batch — puts millions at risk of never receiving a ballot at all. A judge has already blocked parts of the order behind it. Chaos is its own outcome. Halt the rollout until it is independently proven not to disenfranchise anyone.
“In his crusade to undermine American democracy, Donald Trump doesn't have to win to win. He only needs to create a mess.” — Mother Jones
Verifying that a ballot goes to an eligible voter is basic rule-following, and the March executive order asks USPS for no more. But rules need working machinery, so the allegation a Democratic senator released Tuesday — one failed barcode scan voiding an entire batch, from a build the whistleblower calls sloppy and rushed — describes an engineering defect to be tested and corrected. Verification is right; sloppy code is not.
“An anonymous whistleblower disclosure alleging that the Postal Service rushed a new ballot-verification system drew attention from Democrats on Tuesday, hours before a key deadline in the Trump administration's mail-in ballot executive order legal battle.” — Washington Examiner
The receipts — all 71 sources
Wire services (1)
Independent coverage (50)
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