France 24 is reporting that a US Postal Service whistleblower has warned a new ballot-processing system, ordered by President Donald Trump and set to launch Tuesday, could prevent millions of Americans from receiving mail ballots for November's midterm elections. The anonymous federal official alleges the agency continued developing the system despite court orders blocking key parts of Trump's efforts to control mail voting. The disclosure, released by Democratic US Senator Richard Blumenthal, describes the project as "secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed," warning insufficient testing could lead to "catastrophic failure."
Under the proposed system, state election authorities would upload mail voter lists and barcodes to a federal portal. Postal workers would then check samples from large batches of outgoing ballots. The whistleblower alleges a "zero-percent failure policy" could reject an entire batch if even one sampled barcode fails, potentially preventing thousands of ballots from being sent.
The USPS, in a statement to AFP, said it is reviewing the allegations but denied defying court orders. It said work on the ballot portal has been lawful, no mandatory verification procedures are currently used, and the portal will initially be offered voluntarily to election officials.
Senator Blumenthal accused the Postal Service of risking voting rights and urged Postmaster General David Steiner to abandon the plan, stating the system was designed to "disenfranchise millions." Trump signed an executive order in March seeking tighter controls on mail voting, which he claims is vulnerable to fraud. A federal judge temporarily blocked key parts of the plan last week, though the administration is appealing.