{"id":6412,"date":"2026-09-01T17:11:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=6412"},"modified":"2026-09-01T17:11:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:11:41","slug":"one-scanning-error-could-block-tens-of-thousands-thousands-of-mail-ballots-under-trumps-new-postal-system-whistleblower-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=6412","title":{"rendered":"One scanning error could block tens of thousands thousands of mail ballots under Trump\u2019s new postal system, whistleblower warns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The effort is part of the implementation of President Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0executive order limiting mail voting\u00a0and has been\u00a0temporarily halted\u00a0by a federal judge. The ruling is being\u00a0appealed by the administration\u00a0and the directive may ultimately end up back before the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Read more Once a champion for physical media, Sony is now telling PlayStation customers they don\u2019t actually own the digital video games they paid $70 for<\/a><\/p>\n

The disclosure from the unidentified whistleblower contends that the Postal Service has been scrambling to try to build a complex system that would normally take a year or more in only three months, sometimes in defiance of the judge\u2019s orders halting work. The goal is to have it ready for use in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

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The disclosure contends that, due to the new procedures, a single scanning error in a batch of tens of thousands of ballot envelopes could prevent any from reaching voters. It details a system that election officials have already warned could not be implemented before the first mail ballots begin going out Friday in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans,\u201d Blumenthal told reporters in advance of releasing the whistleblower information. \u201cThis administration seems hell-bent on changing the framework on casting ballots in this country clearly for political reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive order is subject to furious court action with midterms nearing<\/h4>\n

Trump\u2019s executive order, signed in March, directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to develop state citizenship lists and then required the Postal Service to send mail ballots only to voters who are on such a list. Ballot envelopes would have to comply with new Postal Service rules and include bar codes.<\/p>\n

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The online portal that is the subject of the whistleblower complaint is intended for states to deliver their lists of verified voters to the Postal Service.<\/p>\n

The Postal Service did not comment on Monday night. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The White House has called the mail voting provisions \u201ccommonsense measures\u201d necessary to combat fraud.<\/p>\n

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Trump has\u00a0long opposed voting by mail, even though he has\u00a0repeatedly used the method\u00a0to cast his own ballot. He falsely\u00a0blamed mail voting\u00a0for his 2020 election loss and has spent years spreading conspiracy theories about it. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.<\/p>\n

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Since returning to office, Trump has said Republicans should be \u201ctaking over\u201d vote counting in Democratic areas and launched a sweeping attempt to reinvestigate the 2020 election, despite a mountain of evidence that he\u00a0lost fairly to Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

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Until Trump came out against mail voting in 2020, the system was used equally by both parties. Since then, it has become more common among Democratic voters. More than 29% of all voters in 2024 cast their ballots through the mail.<\/p>\n

After Trump issued his executive order, Democrats and civil rights groups sued and eventually won a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston barring implementation of the system before the November midterms. But without ruling on the legality of Trump\u2019s order, the\u00a0Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority\u00a0last week found that was premature and overruled Talwani, momentarily\u00a0clearing the way\u00a0for its implementation.<\/p>\n

Read more Cuba\u2019s schools reopen with no fuel, no uniforms and a 27% teacher shortage, as 1.4 million students head to the classroom<\/a><\/p>\n

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On the night of Aug. 21, the Postal Service released\u00a0a final rule\u00a0outlining how it would implement the order.<\/p>\n

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It said it would only send mail ballots for states that got approval for the design of their envelopes and submitted a list of voters receiving them through the still-not-active online portal. That rule gave plaintiffs a chance to sue again, and Talwani on Thursday night issued\u00a0a 14-day restraining order\u00a0against implementation of the measure.<\/p>\n

Whistleblower complaint says portal development is rushed and sloppy<\/h4>\n

The letter from Blumenthal and an accompanying summary of the whistleblower\u2019s statements says the Postal Service began work on the portal on June 15 and stopped on June 25 after Talwani\u2019s initial order. Then on July 29, the Postal Service restarted the work. That was when the administration appealed the judge\u2019s order to the Supreme Court. The high court did not strike Talwani\u2019s injunction down until Aug. 24.<\/p>\n

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Talwani last week found the Postal Service violated her order by continuing to work on the final rule, but she imposed no sanctions on the government. On Monday, she issued a ruling refusing to lift the restraining order that also said the Postal Service could continue work on its portal, as long as it wasn\u2019t forcing states to use it.<\/p>\n

In its summary of the whistleblower\u2019s statement, the group Whistleblower Aid says the hurried construction of the portal, with a goal of being active on Tuesday, meant it did not undergo full testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe apparently sloppy and rushed manner in which the Federal Ballot Mail Portal and supporting IT systems are being built poses significant risk,\u201d the group wrote. \u201cPotentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The statement also says the Postal Service is implementing a \u201czero percent\u201d rule in which any errors in any mail ballots sent out by an election office could lead to all of them being discarded \u2014 even if it\u2019s simply one problem amid tens of thousands of legitimate ballots.<\/p>\n

The rule requires ballots to be handled in a physical post office by an election official. Those will then be scanned to ensure they match the voter database. During three layers of checks, a single apparent error could cause the whole batch to be rejected, the statement says.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal said he has \u201ca very strong hope and some faith that our system of justice will strike down this unconstitutional and unconscionable rule.\u201d But, he added, if it somehow goes into effect for the midterms, he would not advise voting by mail.<\/p>\n

Read more A new bill would tax AI tokens to fund jobs if the technology causes mass unemployment<\/a><\/p>\n

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Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.<\/p>\n

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