Overview
- Sen. Richard Blumenthal released an anonymous whistleblower complaint Tuesday saying USPS built the Federal Ballot Mail Portal on an unrealistically fast timetable and skipped standard testing steps.
- The whistleblower alleges a 'zero‑percent' verification policy that would reject entire ballot batches if any sampled barcode or scan fails, which could hold back thousands or millions of ballots at once.
- Court fights are active: Judge Indira Talwani has issued a temporary restraining order blocking key provisions, the administration is appealing, and the portal's use remains legally uncertain as states begin mailing ballots.
- The complaint says some portal work resumed after an earlier injunction, raising legal and operational concerns about whether the project defied court orders and lacked clear oversight.
- Election officials and voting‑rights groups warn that forced use of the portal would require rapid reprinting, new barcodes and extra processing that could disrupt voters who rely on mail ballots and create ripple effects for deadlines and ballot access.