Rules Designed to Create Chaos
The Trump administration is attempting to restrict mail-in voting for the upcoming midterms by imposing new bureaucratic requirements on the U.S. Postal Service. These measures include mandatory federal sign-off on envelope designs, barcode tracking, and the use of a voter verification portal that is not yet fully operational. Federal courts have blocked the rule, and the Supreme Court is currently weighing whether to allow the restrictions to take effect before Election Day.
- ▪President Trump directed the U.S. Postal Service to implement new hurdles for mailing ballots, including federal approval of envelope designs and barcode verification.
- ▪States are required to upload complete lists of mail-in voters to a federal portal that was not online as of early September 2026.
- ▪A whistleblower warned that the Postal Service plans to use a zero-failure rate system where a single mismatched ballot in a batch prevents the entire batch from being mailed.
- ▪Federal district and appellate courts have blocked the rule, but the Supreme Court is currently reviewing the case and may issue a decision soon.
- ▪Election law experts warn that if the rule is implemented, it could lead to mass disenfranchisement due to the complexity and timing of the new requirements.
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| Original publisher | The Atlantic |
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| Publication time | 2026-09-11T09:12:56-04:00 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-11T13:42:13.431Z |
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IdeasRules Designed to Create ChaosThe Trump administration is hoping to put so many restrictions on mail-in balloting that people simply won’t be able to vote that way at all.By Quinta JurecicIllustration by The Atlantic. Source: Shutterstock.September 11, 2026, 9:12 AM ET ShareSave Donald Trump hates mail-in voting. He has described it as “dangerous,” “corrupt,” “horrible,” and “a fraud.” Last year, in a Truth Social post festooned with capital letters and exclamation points, he announced that he would be signing an executive order to do away with mail-in ballots entirely. That order never materialized, possibly because the president has absolutely no legal authority to carry out such a ban.
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