An Inside Look at USPS’s New Mail-In Voting System and Its Challenges
The United States Postal Service is at the center of a significant debate over mail-in voting, as it attempts to implement a new system under President Trump’s directives. This initiative includes creating an online portal for states to submit voter data for absentee ballots. However, concerns have arisen about the system’s rushed deployment and potential for delaying ballot delivery.
A federal judge has temporarily halted the USPS from mandating states to use this portal for mailing ballots ahead of the midterm elections. The Postal Service is actively appealing this decision.
David Kligerman, an attorney from Whistleblower Aid representing a federal official, criticized the USPS’s approach. “You’ve got a 0% failure rate, which, by the way, is unprecedented. No other part of the mail system has this,” Kligerman mentioned in an interview with Morning Edition. He explained that any issue, from a smudged barcode to scanner errors, could result in entire batches being sent back to the states, causing delays.
The whistleblower claims that the IT system was developed hastily over a few weeks and has not undergone sufficient testing, leading to crashes even during trial runs. The main concern is that the technology might incorrectly flag errors, forcing states to reprocess ballots unnecessarily, thus delaying their arrival to voters.
In response, USPS stated that it is “carefully reviewing” the issues raised by the whistleblower (source).
The administration defends the system, suggesting that it ensures the proper verification of individuals receiving absentee ballots. However, lawsuits argue that the USPS lacks the legal authority to undertake this verification role. Kligerman also questioned the practicality of the system, stating, “This is a solution that does not meet the problem. If you want to verify to whom it’s sent to, there’s a very different way to do it than this.”
For a deeper understanding, you can listen to the full interview by clicking the blue button above. Hansi Lo Wang contributed reporting.
Editor’s note: USPS is a financial supporter of NPR.
Comments are closed.