Whistleblower report warns USPS portal may disrupt midterm voting

Disclosure says single scanning error could block tens of thousands of ballots

The U.S. Postal Service could “derail” the midterm election if it continues rushing out “untested” technology as part of President Trump’s push to restrict mail-in voting, according to a newly released whistleblower report. The disclosure, prepared by Whistleblower Aid on behalf of an anonymous federal government official with direct knowledge of the Postal Service’s development of the new system, was released Tuesday by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who submitted it to USPS on Monday.

The report warns that key parts of the Postal Service’s plan for carrying out Trump’s directives — including requirements for states to comply — remain blocked for now by a court order in the legal fight over the president’s executive order. The agency has been preparing for months to launch an online portal that would allow state election officials to submit absentee voters’ names and ballot envelope barcodes required by the now-blocked rule. Testing of that system has been insufficient, according to the whistleblower’s claims. If courts allow the plan to proceed for the midterms, problems with the portal could lead to eligible absentee voters not receiving their mail-in ballots in time or at all.

“USPS leadership, it appears, has discarded all best practices as they speed the project to be ready for a September 1 implementation — raising questions about whether catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug,” the disclosure said.

The whistleblower also described an unusual “zero-percent failure policy” that USPS has set for the process of verifying that the mail-in ballots states want to send out meet the requirements of its new rule. “As designed, the process is entirely unforgiving. It could delay ballots by the thousands in repeated verification cycles — and thus prevent states from mailing enormous numbers of ballots,” the disclosure said.

The disclosure contends that the Postal Service scrambled to build in only three months a complex system that would normally take a year or more, sometimes in defiance of the judge’s orders halting work. It further contends that a single scanning error in a batch of tens of thousands of ballot envelopes could prevent any from reaching voters. Election officials have already warned the system could not be implemented before the first mail ballots begin going out Friday in North Carolina.

Blumenthal said on a call with reporters that he found the details of the disclosure “mind-boggling,” adding: “And what the disclosure reveals is that the Postal Service has designed a system that is intended to fail.” In a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner, he urged Steiner to “abandon this ill-conceived, unconscionable plan and ensure that all Americans can exercise their constitutional right to vote, including by mail, without interference by USPS.” In advance of releasing the whistleblower information, he told reporters: “The Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans. This administration seems hell-bent on changing the framework on casting ballots in this country clearly for political reasons.”

Trump, who has voted by mail himself, has defended the directives for USPS and other federal agencies as a way to curb illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens, which many studies and audits show is extremely rare.

Last week, a federal judge in Boston issued a temporary restraining order against USPS after finding that its plan for Trump’s order is likely illegal because the mailing agency has no authority to control voting by mail. The administration has appealed that ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, setting up what will likely be another battle at the Supreme Court, which has not yet weighed in on the legality of the directives. More lower court rulings may be on the way as election officials and mail-in voters sort through the uncertainty the ongoing legal fight has caused.

Spokespeople for USPS did not immediately respond to NPR’s questions about the whistleblower disclosure. Mail-in voting for the midterms is set to officially start this week, with the first ballots going out Friday in North Carolina.