USPS seeks – The U.S. Postal Service proposed requiring states to send names of voters who received mail-in ballots along with associated barcodes, a plan that would let the Postal Service help ensure voters are registered recipients and give law enforcement tracking tools
By the time the Postal Service published its proposal, the political fight over mail voting was already in full motion.
On May 29, the U.S. Postal Service put forward a plan that would require states to provide the names of voters who received mail-in ballots. along with the associated barcodes. The proposal arrived just a day after a U.S. District Judge in Washington, DC refused to block President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening mail-in voting rules. A separate judge in Boston set a June 2 hearing for another lawsuit aimed at stopping the same executive order.
The Postal Service said the policy would help ensure that people who receive absentee ballots are registered and are the intended recipients of those ballots. Barcodes, the agency said, would allow ballots to be tracked through the mail. The USPS also opened the proposal for public comments for 30 days.
In a draft set to be published in the Federal Register on June 2. the Postal Service argued that the provision “will help determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts.” It pointed to how the provided lists could show how many ballots were mailed. and how many were received—allowing law enforcement officials to compare the totals and detect potential issues that could warrant further investigation.
Trump’s position has been sharply adversarial toward mail voting. He has railed against it, yet he cast his ballot by mail in the special Florida election for a state representative. He also has argued that absentee ballots are often fraudulent.
The executive order at the center of the dispute was signed on March 31. It directed the Postal Service to propose new rules within 60 days with an aim Trump described as confirming that voters are U.S. citizens and registered.
For critics. the new USPS paperwork request is less about voter verification and more about building a system for disruption after ballots are cast. Alexandra Chandler. director of impact programs at the advocacy group Project Democracy. called the policy a “data grab and a set-up for post-election disruption.”.
Chandler said the administration is building “a centralized repository” that would let partisans mount “frivolous, hyper-targeted” challenges after the election. In a statement. she argued the Postal Service plan would become a mechanism for partisan decision-making: “The administration is trying to turn postal workers into de facto election auditors with the power to decide whether people’s votes get counted while at the same time building an entire federal voter data and technical infrastructure it has no legal authority to create.”.
The Postal Service proposal is part of a broader effort Trump has pursued to tighten election procedures. Trump has also proposed legislation requiring voters to provide identification at polling places and proof of citizenship when registering, but that bill has stalled in Congress.
Congressional Democrats and some state attorneys general sued to block the executive order, arguing that the Constitution gives the executive branch no role in managing elections.
In the DC case, Judge Carl Nichols—appointed by Trump—refused to halt the policy. In an order. he said the government had not yet produced any flawed citizenship lists and the Postal Service had not yet implemented new rules. Nichols wrote that “Given that the Executive Order does not command Plaintiffs to do anything. and that no agency has yet acted pursuant to the Order in a way that could harm Plaintiffs. they have not suffered any harm at present.”.
After the ruling. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. D-New York. said the decision did not change the political reality of what he believes is happening under the Trump order. Schumer. who participated in the DC lawsuit alongside Democratic Party groups and advocacy groups including the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. argued that Trump was trying to silence voters he couldn’t win over.
Schumer said, “mail-in voting is safe and secure” and that Trump is trying to suppress voting. He added that “The Constitution is clear: Presidents do not get to rewrite election law by decree. Congress sets the rules for federal elections − not Donald Trump. not his political allies. and not his radical judges rubber-stamping his power grabs.”.
Between the Postal Service’s request for voter name lists tied to ballot barcodes and the lawsuits arguing whether the administration has any legal authority to impose such changes. the timeline has become tightly packed. The Postal Service’s comments period runs for 30 days. with publication of the proposal in the Federal Register scheduled for June 2. the same day another court hearing is set to take up a separate challenge to Trump’s executive order.
USPS mail-in voting absentee ballots voter lists barcodes Federal Register election security Trump executive order Carl Nichols Chuck Schumer Project Democracy Project Democracy Alexandra Chandler