The U.S. Postal Service proposed new rules Friday that would require states to provide voter-level data on mail-in ballots in federal elections, one day after a federal judge declined to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening mail-in voting rules.
The proposal would require states to submit to the Postal Service the names and addresses of voters receiving mail-in or absentee ballots, along with unique barcodes tied to each voter’s outbound and return ballot envelopes.
USPS said the rule would help determine how many ballots were mailed and allow officials to compare that figure with the number of ballots returned to detect potential issues for further investigation.
The rule would apply to general, special and runoff federal elections, but not primaries or ballots sent to military and overseas voters.
The proposal shifts USPS from recommending ballot-mail practices to mandating them for federal elections. The rule would require official logos, tracking barcodes, and a reporting system linking voters to specific envelopes.
USPS would use the data to create state-specific “Mail-In and Absentee Participation Lists” through a new Federal Ballot Mail Portal. The proposal would also let the USPS return outbound federal ballot mailings that do not meet the new standards or are not tied to state-submitted voter lists.
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