A new whistleblower report warns that the US Postal Service’s mail-in ballot portal remains untested and riddled with defects, raising the prospect of a “catastrophic failure” if it goes live before November’s midterm elections.
Released Tuesday by Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, the report identifies problems at “every stage” of the Postal Service’s effort to develop the system. The portal is intended to compare mail-in ballots with a nationwide database of registered voters assembled using records from all 50 states.
The accelerated push to finish the technology comes as President Donald Trump moves to expand federal involvement in elections, including assigning the USPS a larger role in overseeing mail-in voting.
A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order last week. The Justice Department then asked the 1st Circuit US Court of Appeals to review the decision.
Unless the legal dispute is resolved, the Justice Department is expected to pursue emergency action before the Supreme Court, which only days earlier had allowed a related Trump administration request to proceed by lifting an injunction.
The legal race is unfolding just as states prepare to distribute their own ballots. North Carolina is scheduled to begin mailing them this Friday, September 4, with Alabama set to follow next week.
However, the legal uncertainty over Trump’s proposed voting restrictions is only one source of potential disruption ahead of this year’s elections, according to the whistleblower report.
The document characterizes the USPS procedures as “rushed,” “risky” and “haphazard,” blaming what it calls an “impossible” deadline imposed by Trump. The agency is being asked to tighten mail-voting rules while also checking ballots from individual states against its own voter records.
Election critics warn that the system could create confusion and delays in the November midterms, when millions of Americans are expected to vote by mail.
Demonstrators hold signs during a “Defend the Vote” rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, in August 2026. Trump signed an order in March aimed at restricting mail-in voting before the midterms, but the measure immediately faced several legal challenges.
A mail-in ballot drop box rests on a table during the first day of Virginia’s in-person early voting on September 20, 2024. A whistleblower report has raised concerns about potentially catastrophic flaws in a new USPS system for processing mail-in ballots.
Protesters display a sign during a “Defend the Vote” rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
‘One-third of all Americans cast their ballots by mail,” Blumenthal said. “The USPS puts all of their votes at risk.”
The concerns are amplified by a separate USPS policy requiring what the agency calls a “zero-percent failure” rate. According to the whistleblower report, that standard could cause large numbers of ballots to be rejected without giving voters a clear way to challenge the decision.
The report says tens of thousands of ballots could consequently be rejected and sent back to states, with no consistent explanation of how election officials or voters should resolve the problem.
A single barcode error could trigger a rejection, as could a mismatch caused by a voter failing to update a registration record after changing their name or address following a marriage, divorce or move.
‘As designed, the process is entirely unforgiving,’ the report said. ‘It could delay ballots by the thousands in repeated verification cycles – and thus prevent states from mailing enormous numbers of ballots.’
Whistleblower Aid, which represents the unnamed source, sent the complaint to Blumenthal’s office.
The source was described only as a “federal official with direct knowledge of potentially catastrophic problems in the development” of the Postal Service’s election plans.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, speaks ahead of a confirmation vote on President Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
An election worker processes mail-in ballots at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center in June 2026
Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again campaign rally in Arizona
Blumenthal, for his part, said in a statement Tuesday that the new USPS system is ‘set up to fail,’ and risks the right to vote ‘for millions of Americans who cast their ballots by mail.
‘Given this new information, such sloppiness and haste seems clearly part of a purposeful attempt to create chaos and prevent people from voting,’ Blumenthal said in a statement shared with Our News Outlet. ‘I am demanding answers and accountability.’
