“Catastrophic Failure”: Postal Service Whistleblower Warns Mail-In Voting Rules Could Derail Election

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/9/3/usps_whistleblower#transcript

With the midterm elections two months away, a federal whistleblower has warned that the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail voting system is untested, fatally flawed and likely to lead to a “catastrophic failure” if it’s implemented ahead of November’s midterm elections. Critics warn the system could disenfranchise millions of voters.

In March, President Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to create federal lists of citizens and directing the Postal Service to refuse delivery of mail-in ballots to people not on those lists. Voting rights groups and state officials have sued to block the new rules.

165 points · 19 comments · view on lemmy.world

19 Comments

Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz · 49 pts · 14h

Derailing elections is the point.

Rhaedas@fedia.io · 19 pts · 14h

"Stupid Post Office. Anyway, we counted what we did get in, and we're sure they're valid, and turns out we won with 110% for us."

CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone · 17 pts · 12h (2 replies)

Just wanted to say that in many of the mail-only states, you can still cut out the post office. For example, in WA, you can print out your ballot at home and drop it into a ballot box. There's no requirement to use the postal service.

For WA, simply sign into votewa.gov, navigate to "Your Ballot & Voting Materials", then "Get a replacement ballot", and finally, select "Print a replacement ballot". Additionally, you can request pick up a new ballot in person on the same "Get a replacement ballot" page.

While everyone should be able to vote through mail, I highly discourage returning your ballot through the postal service for obvious reasons. Most counties in WA have placed plenty of ballot boxes, usually there is one within a mile or so of you. VoteWA shows drop box locations as well.

savvie@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 1h (1 reply)

GOP is attempting another cluster fuck coup on the order of January 6 & Bush v. Gore

AMY GOODMAN: In the complaint, the whistleblower wrote, quote, ”USPS leadership, it appears, has discarded all best practices as they speed the project to be ready for a September 1 implementation — raising questions about whether catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug.” While the whistleblower hasn’t spoken publicly, Senator Blumenthal appeared on MS NOW on Tuesday night to talk about the whistleblower’s warning.

SEN. Richard Blumenthal: What he reveals is not only that the White House is breaking the law overtly, but for the first time using the Postal Service as an online gatekeeper with a system that screens those ballots and then, in effect, disqualifies individual ballots based on some discrepancy — the name, the barcode. Any tiny discrepancy, and the whole batch is thrown back to state officials. Now, the interesting thing and the outrageous part of it is that this online system is constructed in a way that it’s designed to fail. Failure is not a bug; it’s a feature.

savvie@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 1h

& the GOP-dominated US Supreme Court is most certainly not going to intervene in any way to rectify this blatant attack on the democratic process of casting a ballot in a federal election in the United States

SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 14h (13 replies)

Face it. The election is already bought.

bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip · 19 pts · 14h (11 replies)

I feel like we need to shout from the hills: vote in person. I know it’s unpleasant, and can be a time waster versus mail in. But the hostility for mail ballots is so overtly transparent, we should all be striving to bypass it to beat these clowns.

SuiXi3D@fedia.io · 14 pts · 13h (1 reply)

And vote EARLY. Not doing so as they’re removing polling places will ultimately end up with long lines and long wait times, meaning there’s likely going to be a bunch of folks that find themselves unable to vote or their votes not being counted.

dan1101@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5h

I think that is very important. Don't just show up on election day and wait in long lines and find out that Republicans fucked up your registration or something. Vote early when it's less crowded and when you have time to fix any problems that magically happened to your voter registration.

hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 14h

With electronic voting machines and ICE intimidating voters at polling places in battleground districts? That’s exactly what they want.

Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 13h (5 replies)

Dammit, I’m not gonna be able to vote naked

bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 12h

We must all make sacrifices in these trying times

crank0271@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 13h (3 replies)

...since when?

Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 13h (2 replies)

I usually vote by mail and I fill the ballot out naked to assert dominance

crank0271@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 13h (1 reply)

There's nothing but your friendly local sheriff keeping you from doing the same in person. The poll workers could probably use the entertainment.

Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 11h

I guess showing up in an American flag speedo and cut off shirt will have to do

PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4h

And vote a week or two in advance. No stupid lines or unpleasant bs.

Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 8h

That's what they want. You're more likely to just disenfranchise would be mail-in voters than you are to suddenly disrupt well established voting trends. Screw up mail in voting and the stats indicate you give the win to GOP. They want you to doubt the mail in system.

hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 14h

The decaying institutions of a capitalist liberal democracy cannot stop the rising tide of fascism, it can only slow it down.