{"id":49992,"date":"2026-09-02T12:11:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49992"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:11:47","slug":"postal-service-whistleblower-warns-trump-assault-on-mail-in-voting-could-derail-the-midterm-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/postal-service-whistleblower-warns-trump-assault-on-mail-in-voting-could-derail-the-midterm-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal Service Whistleblower Warns Trump Assault on Mail-In Voting Could \u2018Derail the Midterm Elections\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"North<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on September 17, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by Allison Joyce\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An anonymous federal official warned of a \u201chigh likelihood that the new ballot mail verification processes will result in major disruptions in mail ballots ever getting delivered to voters.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep 01, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An anonymous federal official warned in a whistleblower disclosure submitted to members of the US Congress<\/a> that the Postal Service\u2019s haphazard implementation of President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order on mail-in voting could \u201cderail the midterm elections<\/a>\u201d by preventing potentially millions of American voters from receiving ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disclosure was released in full on Tuesday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who included the document in a letter<\/a> to Postmaster General David Steiner\u2014Trump\u2019s pick to lead USPS<\/a>. Blumenthal said the whistleblower\u2019s account provides \u201cdisturbing details about USPS\u2019 seemingly illegal plot to interfere in November\u2019s midterms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The new disclosure raises \u201csignificant concerns\u201d about the Postal Service\u2019s \u201csecretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process\u201d for establishing \u201can entirely new and untested set of IT systems\u201d in compliance with Trump\u2019s March executive order<\/a>, which is at the center of high-stakes legal fights<\/a> just weeks before the November midterms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s USPS directives have been blocked in federal court<\/a>, but the administration is trying to get them reinstated ahead of the midterm contests\u2014and the whistleblower complaint suggests the administration may be violating court orders by continuing to work on the new systems. Mail-in voting for the midterms is officially set to begin this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Described in the disclosure as the \u201cPortal,\u201d the new Postal Service IT systems \u201cwill govern the delivery of ballots to voters as soon as the 2026 mid-term federal elections and beyond.\u201d The whistleblower raises \u201cgrave concerns\u201d that the Trump administration<\/a> has \u201chidden the high likelihood that the new ballot mail verification processes will result in major disruptions in mail ballots ever getting delivered to voters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs presently designed, if even one bar code on one single ballot in a bulk-mailing of 10,000 ballots fails to properly scan during the verification process, the entire batch is rejected and sent back to the state\u2014effectively stopping the ballots from being mailed to voters,\u201d the disclosure states. \u201cThe whistleblower is particularly concerned that the Portal (where the bar codes are stored) will almost certainly have significant operating problems when released to the public, due to the rushed IT development; this will contribute to failures in the verification process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whistleblower filing notes warnings that the Portal system could \u201ccompletely crash\u201d during rollout and quoted descriptions from IT\u00a0workers<\/a>\u00a0at the Postal Service who described the entire process as \u201ca shit show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/rgoodlaw\/status\/2094776994605006849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2094776994605006849%7Ctwgr%5E558c37f0b46fdab649dd6a4077cc9e1338c6a2da%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fpostal-service-whistleblower<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libby Liu, the CEO of Whistleblower Aid\u2014a nonprofit representing the anonymous federal official\u2014said in a statement<\/a> that \u201cthe whistleblower\u2019s service to our nation is warning the public that their ability to vote is in serious jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are crossing the Rubicon of American elections,\u201d said Liu<\/strong>. \u201cThis dangerously defective mail-in ballot process could disenfranchise millions of voters, ensnaring ballots in red tape under the guise of solving a non-existent problem. People in states that rely heavily on vote-by-mail will have a more difficult time making their voices heard in our challenged democracy<\/a> this November.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USPS whistleblower also provided their account to the House Oversight Committee. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement Tuesday morning that the official\u2019s account makes clear that \u201cTrump\u2019s attack on vote-by-mail for the 2026 election is more serious than previously understood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis new secret tracking system at the\u00a0US Postal Service<\/a>\u00a0is faulty, untested, and threatens to totally disrupt ballot delivery for millions of American citizens,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cWe are fighting in court to protect the right to vote by mail for all and will continue to investigate. This unconstitutional and dangerous power grab must be permanently and immediately blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on September 17, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina.  (Photo by Allison Joyce\/Getty Images) An anonymous federal official warned of a \u201chigh likelihood that the new ballot mail verification processes will result in major disruptions in mail… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2459],"tags":[2431],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49993,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49992\/revisions\/49993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}