By Ayehsa Butt — SCN News
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 — The U.S. Postal Service has stopped developing a computer system that would have played a central role in President Donald Trump’s effort to impose new federal requirements on mail voting in the November midterm elections, Postmaster General David Steiner said, after the Supreme Court declined to allow the restrictions to take effect this year. The decision means the Postal Service says it will handle election mail under its established procedures rather than enforce the new voter-verification and ballot-envelope requirements.
“There’s an injunction so we’re not doing anything,” Steiner told the Associated Press on Thursday. An internal USPS memo obtained by AP similarly told employees that the agency would not enforce the new rules in the 2026 federal election and described its immediate approach to election mail as a return to normal procedures.
The computer project, known as the U.S. Federal Ballot Mail Portal, would have given state election officials a system for transmitting information about people receiving mail ballots. Under Trump’s March executive order and the Postal Service rule developed to implement it, federal agencies were also directed to compile state citizenship information, with the proposed system ultimately allowing USPS to check ballot mailings against eligibility-related lists before accepting them for delivery.
The proposed changes went further than creating a database. States would have been required to meet new standards for mail-ballot envelopes, including unique barcodes, and provide information needed for verification. Litigation filed against the administration argued that USPS could refuse to transmit ballots when state systems did not comply with the federal requirements, potentially affecting millions of voters shortly before the Nov. 3 election. The administration argued that the measures were intended to enforce federal law and strengthen election integrity.
Federal courts blocked implementation. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Trump, issued a preliminary injunction against the USPS rule this month, concluding that the Postal Service lacked statutory authority for the restrictions. Another federal court had separately blocked key provisions, and the Supreme Court this week declined to let the administration enforce the mail-ballot restrictions for the 2026 election while the litigation continues.
The Supreme Court action does not necessarily settle the underlying legal dispute permanently. Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated that the administration could receive a different hearing if the question returns to the court in another procedural posture, according to AP. For the current midterm election, however, states can continue using their existing systems for sending mail ballots rather than implementing the federal requirements contemplated by Trump’s order.
Steiner sought to distance the Postal Service’s operational role from the political and constitutional dispute surrounding the policy. He described USPS as an independent agency within the executive branch and said his responsibility had been to determine how the presidential directive could be implemented rather than decide whether its underlying policy was appropriate. He also rejected speculation that political pressure surrounding the dispute could cause him to resign.
The system itself had already generated internal controversy. A whistleblower complaint released by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal raised concerns that the portal had been developed on a compressed timetable and could contain errors. USPS acknowledged that development had proceeded quickly but defended its technical staff and said its testing, security and risk-management standards had not been compromised.
The Postal Service said earlier this month that it had spent months developing the portal and planned to make it available to election officials wishing to familiarize themselves with it voluntarily. Steiner said the agency had expected to unveil the system around Sept. 15 before the latest court developments stopped the work.
Separate from the blocked Trump rules, election officials continue to face questions about postal processing and ballot postmarks. USPS says modernization of its transportation network means a piece of mail may sometimes reach the processing facility where it receives a postmark on a different day from when the Postal Service first took possession of it. Because state laws differ over when a mailed ballot must be sent or received, that distinction can become important in determining whether some ballots are counted.
Recent data have intensified those concerns. In Washington state, the proportion of ballots rejected because of late postmarks increased during this year’s primary, while an inspector general audit identified shortcomings in election-mail training and tracking during primary elections. Those issues are operationally separate from Trump’s blocked voter-verification proposal, and stopping development of the federal portal does not itself resolve them.
Steiner urged voters returning ballots through the mail not to wait until Election Day. USPS recommends that domestic voters mail completed ballots at least seven days before the deadline for election officials to receive them. The agency also says voters who need a postmark matching the day they submit their ballot can take it to a postal retail counter and request a manual local postmark without charge.
For the November election, the immediate position is clearer than the longer-term legal battle: USPS says it will not use the proposed federal verification system to determine which mail ballots it will carry and will instead follow its established election-mail procedures. Whether a future administration effort could revive similar requirements remains unresolved as litigation over federal authority, state control of elections and the Postal Service’s proper role continues.