Whistleblower: USPS Still Pursuing Mail-In Voting Rule Despite Court Order [Op-Ed]

Fun fact: the Constitution gives the states and Congress control over elections. That has not deterred President Donald Trump from trying to federalize elections ahead of the midterms. Despite a federal judge blocking a rule from the United States Postal Service (USPS) that significantly restricts mail-in voting, a whistleblower has revealed that the USPS is still moving forward with implementing the rule.

The New York Times reports that Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) published a report on Tuesday morning detailing how the “risky and haphazard” implementation of Trump’s executive order could lead to a “catastrophic failure” in the mail ballot system ahead of this year’s midterm elections. 

“Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,” the official said in the report, which was prepared with the assistance of the nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, which represents people seeking to expose potential lawbreaking.

The rule implemented by the USPS orders postal workers not to deliver mail-in ballots in states that haven’t submitted their voter rolls to an online portal. According to AP, the whistleblower’s primary concern is that the online portal is error-prone and being rushed out without any proper testing.

From AP:

The disclosure from the unidentified whistleblower contends that the Postal Service has been scrambling to try to build a complex system that would normally take a year or more in only three months, sometimes in defiance of the judge’s orders halting work. The goal is to have it ready for use in the midterm elections.

The disclosure contends that, due to the new procedures, a single scanning error in a batch of tens of thousands of ballot envelopes could prevent any from reaching voters. It details a system that election officials have already warned could not be implemented before the first mail ballots begin going out Friday in North Carolina.

“The Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans,” Blumenthal told reporters in advance of releasing the whistleblower information. “This administration seems hell-bent on changing the framework on casting ballots in this country clearly for political reasons.”

“The main takeaway for me is that the Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans. One-third of all Americans cast their ballots by mail, and the U.S.P.S. puts all of their votes at risk,” Blumenthal told reporters on Tuesday.

The midterms aren’t looking good for Trump and the Republican Party at large. Trump’s approval rating has been consistently underwater, and the Republican Party’s approval rating is no better. Instead of, you know, doing their job and pursuing policies that address the issues that are most pressing to the average American, they’ve instead tried to consolidate power through redistricting efforts, failed bills, and executive orders. 

While the Supreme Court struck down a previous block on the USPS rule, arguing that the lawsuit against it was filed too early, a federal judge restored the block last week after the Postal Service formally revealed the rule. 

Executive Vice President of State Campaigns and Programs Cynthia Travieso for voting rights nonprofit All Voting is Local released a statement addressing the whistleblower’s report. 

“President Donald Trump and the U.S. Postal Service’s purported effort to secretly keep 47 million people from voting is a wild and illegal disregard for voters who rely on vote-by-mail, and it’s another pathetic and desperate attempt to control our elections before a single ballot in the general election is even cast,” Travieso wrote.

“This is another attempted power grab by the Trump administration and his allies. It’s also a demonstration of election sabotage with real consequences for people across America who use mail-in voting—including busy parents with multiple jobs, rural voters who can’t drive an hour to a polling location, and possibly even those deployed overseas.” 

It’s wild how the mediocre masses got worked up enough to storm the Capitol over lies about a stolen election. Now, we have a sitting president explicitly trying to steal an election by disenfranchising a wide swath of voters, and none of that energy is to be found. 

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