Zürcher Nachrichten - US postal whistleblower warns ballot system could disrupt midterms

The anonymous federal official alleges that the agency has continued developing the system despite court orders blocking key parts of Trump's effort to impose new federal controls on voting by mail.

The disclosure, released Tuesday by Democratic US Senator Richard Blumenthal, describes the project as "secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed" and warns that insufficient testing could lead to "catastrophic failure."

Under the proposed system, state election authorities would upload lists of mail voters and identifying barcodes to a new federal portal.

Postal workers would then check samples from large batches of outgoing ballots against that information before accepting them for delivery.

The whistleblower alleges USPS has adopted a "zero-percent failure policy" under which an entire batch could be rejected if even one sampled barcode fails to scan or match the federal system.

That could mean that one problematic ballot in a mailing of 10,000 prevents the other 9,999 from being sent until the discrepancy is resolved and the batch checked again.

"The apparently sloppy and rushed manner in which the federal ballot mail portal and supporting IT systems are being built poses significant risk," said the official, who is represented by the nonprofit Whistleblower Aid.

"Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all," the person said.

The disclosure said the system was built under constantly changing requirements and received only a fraction of the testing normally required for a major information technology project.

- 'Chaos' -

USPS, which did not respond to AFP's request for comment, had been working toward a September 1 launch, the whistleblower said.

Blumenthal, the senior Democrat on a Senate investigations panel, accused the Postal Service of putting voting rights at risk and urged Postmaster General David Steiner to abandon the plan.

"The whistleblower's allegations make clear that USPS lacks the technical or operational capability needed to effectively implement the (order's) provisions in a way that safeguards every citizen's right to vote in the upcoming midterm elections," Blumenthal said.

"Despite this, the Trump administration appears intent on USPS moving forward with its flawed plans, no matter the chaos they may create," he said.

Blumenthal told reporters in a press call reported by The New York Times that the USPS had designed the system to "disenfranchise millions," and noted that about a third of American voters cast ballots by mail.

Trump signed an executive order in March seeking tighter controls on mail voting, which he has repeatedly claimed is vulnerable to widespread fraud despite offering no evidence of misconduct on such a scale.

The president himself has voted by mail multiple times.

A federal judge in Massachusetts last week temporarily blocked key parts of the Postal Service plan, finding that the agency likely lacked authority to regulate who may receive a mail ballot.

The Trump administration is appealing.

The judge has, however, allowed USPS to continue work on the online portal for states that choose voluntarily to use it while the wider legal battle continues.

The dispute comes as the first states prepare to send mail ballots this week, leaving election officials with little time to adjust should the courts eventually allow Trump's rules to take effect.

"Any widespread USPS disruption would cripple election administration in many states, including my home state, Arizona," said Stephen Richer of the libertarian Cato Institute, a top former administrator for Maricopa County, one of the largest voting jurisdictions in the United States.

R.Bernasconi--NZN