USPS Proposed Stopping Mail Ballot Deliveries, but 23 States Filed a Lawsuit

The U.S. Postal Service has long had one job: deliver the mail. Now, for the first time in history, it wants the power to decide which ballots get delivered at all. The USPS proposed a rule change in June 2026 that would require states to hand over lists of mail-in and absentee voters to the federal government in exchange for having those ballots delivered. The rule puts tens of millions of votes in a precarious position heading into the 2026 midterm elections. 

More than 48 million Americans cast ballots by mail in the 2024 election, making up roughly one in three voters nationwide. The proposed rule flows directly from a March 31 executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which directed the USPS to overhaul how it handles federal ballot mail. Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that mail voting is rife with fraud and has sought to curtail it. 

The proposal shifts USPS from recommending ballot-mail practices to mandating them for federal elections. It would require official logos, tracking barcodes, and a reporting system linking voters to specific envelopes. States that fail to submit voter lists through a new Federal Ballot Mail Portal risk having their outbound ballots returned undelivered. The mechanics of how tens of millions of people vote hang on whether that system can even be built in time. 

What the Rule Actually Does

Trump’s executive order seeks to give USPS an unprecedented role in the midterm elections: not just delivering ballots but policing who gets one. Under the proposed rule, states would submit names, addresses, and ballot-specific barcodes for every mail voter through a federally managed portal. USPS would use the data to create state-specific “Mail-In and Absentee Participation Lists” and would be permitted to return outbound ballots that do not meet the new standards or are not tied to state-submitted voter lists. 

The proposal says states would retain full control over who would or would not be able to vote by mail in federal elections, as states would control enrollment with the Postal Service for inclusion on the list. But some election officials see the requirement as a backdoor data grab by the administration, as the Justice Department has already sued 30 states to obtain sensitive voter data, particularly for universal mail-balloting states where essentially every voter would be on such a list. 

The proposed rules would reshape USPS from logistics provider to active gatekeeper in federal elections. Former USPS Board of Governors Vice Chair Anton Hajjar put it plainly. “If proper postage is paid on a mail piece, the USPS should deliver it,” Hajjar told CNN, adding, “The proposed rule says it’s not regulating elections but that’s what, in effect, it’s doing.” 

The Legal Firestorm the Rule Triggered

Officials from 23 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s executive order that aims to restrict mail voting. The suit, led by California, was filed in federal court in Massachusetts and argues that neither the Constitution nor any federal law gives the president authority to mandate sweeping changes to state electoral systems. The coalition called the order an attempt to “amend and dictate election law by fiat based on the President’s whims.” 

The lawsuit argues that the executive order violates the separation of powers because the Constitution grants states the power to run elections, rather than the federal government or the president. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who joined the coalition, put the stakes plainly: “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and no president has the power to rewrite the rules on his own,” James said. The NAACP separately moved to halt the proposed rule, arguing it would violate a prior legal agreement committing USPS to timely ballot delivery. 

The NAACP’s motion argues the proposed rule implements a new gatekeeping function for USPS, under which it would refuse to deliver mail-in ballots if state or local election officials do not provide certain information or use a certain envelope design, and that this violates a prior settlement agreement and federal law. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, whose state is among the 23 suing, offered a blunter assessment: “This would deny eligible people the right to vote. Full stop,” Read told CNN. With appeals now underway, the summer of 2026 could produce rulings that permanently alter how elections are administered. 

A November Deadline That May Already Be Impossible to Meet

Even if courts allow the rules to proceed, a practical question remains: can USPS execute them in time? The proposal depends on a new digital portal to manage voter lists and ballot tracking, technology that, according to multiple election officials cited in the draft, does not yet exist. The administration has said it expects the rule to be in place before November, but election officials warn that implementing an untested federal system in the middle of an active election year invites chaos. 

At oral arguments before a federal judge in Boston, a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general and voting rights advocates said the administration’s rule would be “expensive, cumbersome and chaotic to comply with,” given the demand to create new voter lists and, in some cases, change mail ballot designs with fewer than 150 days until the 2026 general election. Meanwhile, the ACLU warned that the order risks amassing millions of voters’ sensitive personal data into what it called “inaccurate and unlawful databases.” 

If implemented, the executive order would inject chaos into elections, block eligible American citizens from voting, undermine voter privacy, and expose election officials and others to criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs. The rule has not been finalized and faces multiple legal challenges with enough force to delay or kill it entirely. But the fight itself has already accomplished something: it has forced a reckoning over whether a federal agency built to move mail can be legally converted into the country’s first national arbiter of ballot eligibility.