Whistleblower warns USPS rushing new system that could jeopardize mail-in ballots

Amna Nawaz:

That system is designed to comply with President Trump's executive order to exert more federal control over mail-in voting.

And a report published today by the office of Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal cites an anonymous official from the Postal Service who warns the -- quote -- "risky and haphazard implementation" of the president's order could lead to -- quote -- "catastrophic failure" in the mail ballot system and that -- quote -- "potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner or at all."

To discuss, I'm joined now by Jacob Bogage. He is White House correspondent for Reuters, and he's been covering the story.

Welcome. Thanks for being here.

Jacob Bogage, White House Correspondent, Reuters:

Thanks for having me.

Amna Nawaz:

Let's talk a little bit more about some of these new U.S. Postal Service rules under President Trump's order. The whistle-blower raises a few concerns, one, that people might not even receive their ballots, but, another, that ballots cast could be rejected en masse. What's in the new rules that would allow for that to happen?

Jacob Bogage:

Yes, this stems from President Trump's executive order that seeks to restrict mail-in voting and asks states and the federal government to verify that everyone who casts a ballot is a citizen. Of course, noncitizen voting is already illegal, and there's very little evidence that it occurs at scale.

The issues that the whistle-blower raises are twofold. One is operational, sending ballots out. The Postal Service would have to verify states' voter rolls. It does not have the ability to do that. It's trying to make a portal to do it, and that's going very poorly.

The other is on ballot acceptance, and the issues there are twofold. One of them, again, is verification when ballots come back in. The other is that the mail is just very slow right now. And ballots used to be treated with extraordinary care, and they were routed around processing facilities. They will no longer be routed around those facilities now and could get stuck in complicated mail streams.

Amna Nawaz:

You mentioned that the process to implement that portal is going poorly.

In this report, the whistle-blower says the agency had planned to complete this new digital system overseeing mail ballots by September 1. That is today. Do we know if that happened?

Jacob Bogage:

We're not certain if that happened, but the amount of time that it would take to create a system of this nature could be, frankly, years to test it and to implement it and to get feedback from stakeholders. That work has not been done.

Amna Nawaz:

So we should note that, despite voting by mail himself, the president has pushed for more restrictions on mail-in voting, more federal control over mail-in voting. Would this new system allow for that?

Jacob Bogage:

This new system would inject the federal government into the voting process of every city, town, village, and hamlet in the United States.

And there are constitutional protections, frankly, against that. The Constitution vests election procedures, the time, place, and manner of an election with state governments. The federal government really does not have a ton of control over elections. This would basically make the post office a clearinghouse for ballots in a way that it's never been done before.

And the Postal Service, it does a lot of things really well. It's, frankly, not equipped for this task.

Amna Nawaz:

So nearly a third of all Americans voted by mail in the 2024 general election.

Jacob Bogage:

That's right.

Amna Nawaz:

You're talking about nearly 50 million votes. How big an impact could these new rules have, especially when we have just weeks to go before the midterm elections?

Jacob Bogage:

They could have a large impact, and voting by mail is pretty popular, but it's getting less and less popular.

In 2020, about half of voters voted by mail, in '24, about a third. We should expect a further drop-off there. But voters report really liking being able to cast their ballot from home. It gives them more time to research. It lets them vote on a convenient schedule. It saves them from having to take time off of work to go to the polls.

Amna Nawaz:

I want to ask you too about the leadership at the U.S. Postal Service. We know the president played an active role in nominating the current postmaster general. That is David Steiner.

And there's other questions about some of the nominees that he appointed, Republican nominees, to the board. It's usually a bipartisan pairing that ends up there. One of those nominees, in particular, had expressed some skepticism over mail ballots, over who won the 2020 election. That was actually across the different nominees.

But here is a piece of sound from one of those men, William Gallo, in his confirmation hearing this summer.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI):

Do you believe that mail-in voting now is safe and secure?

William Gallo, USPS Board of Governors Nominee: That's a very good question. I would say it's not -- mail-in -- under the proper guidance and monitoring, yes.

Amna Nawaz:

Jacob, those nominees are not yet confirmed, but if they are, what power do they have over a system that they have expressed doubts in?

Jacob Bogage:

They have a lot of power on the one hand and a negligible amount of power on the other hand. And that's because of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this summer that the president can remove independent agency boards, frankly, without a lot of cause. These postal officials would fall under that ruling. They could be in office one day, and if the president's cross with them, out of office the next.

At the same time, they do control this agency that anchors a $1.7 trillion dollar economy, that employs 650,000 people, that mails hundreds of thousands of ballots out, that small and medium-sized businesses rely on. These are very influential positions. And they have expressed skepticism, in some cases kind of baseless skepticism, about the safety of mail-in voting.

Amna Nawaz:

All right, Jacob Bogage, White House correspondent for Reuters, thank you for being here.

Jacob Bogage:

It's a pleasure.