USPS proposes requiring states to identify and list mail voters
The U.S. Postal Service has proposed new rules outlining how the Trump administration’s disputed executive order on mail ballots would be implemented. If approved, the plan would add new requirements for mail voting and new administrative burdens for election officials.
Under the proposal, states would have to submit to the federal government a list of registered voters who received mail-in or absentee ballots in key federal elections. Published Friday in a Federal Register notice, it would also require states to provide the USPS with voter names and barcodes linked to mail ballots for federal elections. The requirement would not apply to primary elections.
If a state does not submit the list, or if a voter is not included, the Postal Service could refuse to deliver that person’s ballot. However, the proposal does not clearly explain what would happen if names are missing or lists are not received on time, according to Dion Nissenbaum of Votebeat.
He also noted that local election offices would need to create new federal-compliant systems, including adding barcodes to ballots, which could create financial and logistical strain ahead of the November election.
Trump’s executive order, signed in March, directed the Department of Homeland Security to compile state-by-state lists of adult citizens and instructed USPS to deliver ballots only to those listed. A federal judge recently declined to block the order on timing grounds without ruling on its legality.
It has drawn lawsuits and opposition from postal workers, and a 30-day comment period is now underway. A separate federal case in Boston is challenging its constitutionality. Mail voting, used for over a century and expanded in recent decades, became a political flashpoint after 2020, when Trump raised fraud claims, and it has since become less popular among Republicans.
