New mail-in voting rules pose particular risk in Native communities
Whistleblower voices concerns about new system
Thousands of mail-in election ballots could potentially get rejected because of one single unverifiable voter in their midst under new Trump administration rules – and United States Postal Service officials have been meeting internally to discuss how to avoid this risk of “mass disenfranchisement.”
ProPublica’s Jen Fifield reported Wednesday on widespread internal discussions within USPS, and she reported additional evidence of election clerks alerting the Postal Service to the possibility of the same issue playing out. An anonymous federal employee has also filed a whistleblower disclosure alerting U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to fundamental flaws of the same nature in the new voting system.
Native voters, who face unique challenges with mail-in voting, are particularly vulnerable to seeing their ballots rejected writ-large because of just one voter that can’t be confirmed as eligible under the new mail-in structure.
A bulk mailing with over 2 million ballots, Fifield reported, could be derailed because a single barcode doesn’t scan properly in the system or one voter’s information can’t be verified by their local post office.
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