Overview
- Postmaster General David Steiner said the Postal Service stopped work on the Ballot Mail Portal and related barcode processing after courts and the Supreme Court left lower‑court injunctions blocking the rule in place.
- An internal USPS memo told employees the agency will not enforce the new barcode‑envelope and state voter‑list requirements for the 2026 federal election and to continue normal election‑mail operations.
- The Trump administration rule would have required states to submit statewide registered‑voter or citizenship lists to a USPS portal and to use a uniform, barcoded ballot envelope to receive mail ballots.
- Whistleblower complaints and an inspector‑general review warned the portal was built quickly and contained errors that could misread barcodes, mishandle postmarks, or lead to mass ballot processing mistakes.
- Legal, political, and operational disputes will likely continue after the election because the courts left open the merits of the policy and the administration and DOJ have signaled they may press the issue further.