An anonymous federal official disclosed to Congress that a new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) digital system, developed to comply with a presidential executive order, may lead to delivery failures for mail ballots. A report released Tuesday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) contains the official’s warning that the "risky and haphazard" implementation of the system could prevent millions of voters from receiving ballots. The whistleblower claims the agency is attempting to build a complex IT framework in three months that would typically require at least a year.
The system is part of President Donald Trump’s March executive order aimed at exerting federal control over mail-in voting. The order requires the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to develop state citizenship lists. Under the new rules, the USPS would only deliver mail ballots to voters whose names appear on those verified lists and whose envelopes meet specific design and barcode requirements. The White House has described these measures as necessary to prevent fraud, though a 2025 Brookings Institution report found that mail voting fraud occurred in approximately four cases for every 10 million ballots.
According to the whistleblower disclosure, the USPS is implementing a "zero percent" error rule for ballot acceptance. Under this procedure, a single scanning error in a batch of tens of thousands of ballot envelopes could result in the rejection of the entire batch. The whistleblower also reported that the agency continued work on the digital portal in July despite a court injunction. The USPS and the White House did not provide immediate comments on the specific allegations in the whistleblower report on Tuesday.
The impact would be felt most immediately in North Carolina, where the first mail ballots are scheduled to be sent to voters this Friday, Sept. 4. The whistleblower claims that election officials have already warned that the portal system cannot be properly implemented before that date. Beyond the current election cycle, the new rules represent a shift in the federal government's role in elections, which the U.S. Constitution generally vests with state governments. If the system is fully implemented, the USPS would serve as a clearinghouse for ballot verification, a task for which the whistleblower argues the agency is not equipped.
The legal status of these changes remains in flux due to ongoing litigation. While U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued a 14-day restraining order against the implementation of the rules on Thursday, Aug. 27, the Supreme Court previously overruled an earlier injunction, allowing the administration to proceed with preparations. The current restraining order remains in effect while the administration appeals. A final determination on whether the portal and verification rules will be active for the upcoming midterms depends on further court rulings and the technical readiness of the USPS system.