Overview
- ProPublica reporting disclosed that early White House drafts would have required all mail ballots to be delivered by certified mail so recipients must sign in person to get their ballots.
- Postal Service leaders pushed back, telling the White House the certified‑mail idea was impossible to run for tens of millions of voters, and the administration dropped that requirement.
- The final March executive order still tried to make USPS staff check ballots, demand special envelopes, and pre‑approve local ballot mailings, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked those provisions earlier this month.
- Several members of the USPS Board of Governors privately feared retaliation if they openly resisted the White House, and the White House has publicly denied improper interference or that the certified‑mail plan was abandoned for being unworkable.
- Election officials, courts, the Postal Service inspector general, and civil groups are continuing reviews and lawsuits because the proposals could delay ballots, disenfranchise voters who rely on mail voting, and raise new constitutional disputes over federal control of state elections.