Postal Service seeks mail-in ballot voter lists after Trump order
This image taken on October 21, 2025 in Encinitas, California, United States, shows a mail-in ballot containing California’s Proposition 50.
Mike Blake | Reuters
US Postal Service suggested new rules It will require states to provide voter-level data on mail ballots in federal elections, a day after a federal judge on Friday refused to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening mail-in voting rules.
offer It would require states to send to the Postal Service the names and addresses of voters who receive mail-in or absentee ballots, as well as unique barcodes tied to each voter’s outgoing and returned ballots.
USPS said the rule would help determine how many ballots were mailed and allow officials to compare that figure to the number of ballots returned to identify potential problems 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 the USPS from recommending absentee ballot apps to requiring them for federal elections. The rule calls for official logos, tracking bar codes and a reporting system that links voters to specific envelopes.
USPS will use the data to create state-specific “Mail-In and Absentee Participation Lists” through a new Federal Ballot Mail Portal. The proposal would also allow USPS to return federal ballots that do not meet the new standards or are not tied to state-provided voter lists.
States will still control who is eligible to vote by mail. The Constitution provides that states, not the federal government, control most election-related functions.
The rule follows Trump’s March 31 election-related executive order directing the USPS to begin rulemaking on mail and absentee voting services.
A federal judge on Thursday declined to immediately block the order’s vote-by-mail provisions, calling the challenge premature because the agencies had not yet implemented it.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judge’s decision Thursday leaves open the possibility that Democrats will challenge the policy again when the administration takes further steps to implement it.
Democrats and many voting rights groups argued that Trump’s order interfered with states’ authority over elections and could make it harder to vote by mail. The administration has in the past advocated for steps to tighten the process as an election integrity measure.
The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on June 2. Public comments will be received 30 days after publication.
