Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is seeking answers from the postal service about a new platform it is launching that will verify that mail-in ballots are only being sent to eligible voters.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is developing an online portal that allows states to upload a list of eligible voters that the postal system will match against ballots before it mails them out. If a name on a ballot does not appear on the list, USPS will not send out that ballot.
In an Aug. 31 letter to Postmaster General David Steiner and other postal officials, Blumenthal says that process allows USPS to “play a gatekeeping function and be in a position to refuse to mail ballots that state election officials have determined should be sent out.”
“We urge you 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.”
The senator said he received an anonymous whistleblower complaint alleging the new system is being rushed out in time for the 2026 midterms, but without proper protocols to test whether it functions properly.
Such a complex system should take a year or more to create, but USPS is trying to get it done in only three months, an Aug. 30 complaint from nonprofit group Whistleblower Aid said, which was attached to Blumenthal’s letter.
The whistleblower said USPS is using a “zero percent failure rate” system: In a batch of 10,000 ballots, if even one ballot doesn’t match the voter list—or if one barcode doesn’t scan properly—the entire batch will be sent back to the state for reverification.
Blumenthal also wants to know whether USPS violated multiple court orders by continuing work on the system.
The mail-in voting changes stem from President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to regulate the practice for election integrity. The government has an “unavoidable duty” under the Constitution to ensure election laws are enforced, Trump wrote in the March order.
That order has been the subject of multiple lawsuits.
The new portal has been in development since June, but U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ordered USPS to halt work on it—along with other parts of Trump’s order—in a court order that remained in force for about a month. The Supreme Court struck down Talwani’s order at the end of August. The justices said she acted prematurely, since USPS had not finalized its new mail-in voting rules.
But USPS issued a final plan on Aug. 21, and that allowed plaintiffs to file a fresh lawsuit. Talwani issued another block on Aug. 27, but the whistleblower alleged work on the new system is ongoing despite her order.
Blumenthal is asking USPS to confirm that development of the new system has halted in compliance with Talwani’s order, along with details about who is working on the new system, when the work resumed if that is the case, and what kind of testing USPS plans for the new system before its rollout.
The Epoch Times reached out to the White House and Postmaster General’s office for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
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