Michigan Election Watch | Part 1
More than 2.2 million Michiganders voted by mail in 2024. A federal whistleblower alleges a new USPS verification system could reject entire batches of outbound absentee ballots after one failed barcode — but the controversial rule is currently blocked in federal court.
WASHINGTON DC – A newly disclosed whistleblower complaint is raising questions about whether a new U.S. Postal Service verification system could delay absentee ballots from reaching Michigan voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.
The allegation is striking.
Under an internal USPS procedure described by the whistleblower, a single verification failure among hundreds of absentee-ballot envelopes sampled from a large mailing could cause the entire batch to be rejected and returned to election officials for correction.
For Michigan, where more than 2.2 million people voted by mail in the 2024 presidential election, even temporary disruptions involving large batches of absentee ballots could become significant — particularly in a state with a history of elections decided by thousands of votes.
But there is an equally important fact:
The disputed Postal Service requirements are currently blocked in federal court.
There is no evidence that Michigan absentee-ballot batches are presently being rejected under the challenged verification system.
The Trump administration is fighting to reinstate the requirements before November.
The Controversy Involves Ballots Going To Voters
One distinction is critical.
The controversy primarily concerns outbound absentee ballots — ballots being mailed by election officials to voters.
It does not mean USPS is rejecting batches of completed ballots that voters have already cast.
Under the new system, election officials would submit information through a Federal Ballot Mail Portal. Outbound ballot envelopes would carry unique Intelligent Mail barcodes that USPS could scan and compare with information submitted through the system.
The Postal Service’s published rule provides that mailings failing required verification can be refused and returned to the authorized ballot mailer for correction.
The whistleblower disclosure goes considerably further in describing how that verification allegedly would work.
Whistleblower Alleges Zero-Tolerance Standard
According to the disclosure made public by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, USPS employees would sample envelopes from larger absentee-ballot mailings.
The whistleblower alleges that mailings containing between 1,000 and 10,000 ballots would have 350 envelopes sampled.
For batches exceeding 10,000 ballots, 400 would be sampled.
The most controversial allegation involves the acceptable error rate:
Zero.
According to the whistleblower, if even one sampled barcode fails verification, USPS would stop the sampling and the entire mailing could be rejected and returned to election officials.
Election officials would then have to identify and correct the problem before resubmitting the mailing.
The sampling numbers and zero-failure threshold described by the whistleblower do not appear in the published USPS regulation. They are allegations based on the whistleblower’s claimed inside knowledge of the system.
That distinction is important.
Rejected Ballots Would Be Delayed — Not Lost Votes
A rejected batch containing 10,000 absentee ballots would not mean 10,000 votes had been thrown away.
The voters haven’t cast those ballots yet.
Election officials could correct the problem and resubmit the mailing.
The potential danger identified by critics is delay.
A rejected mailing could have to be returned, corrected, reprocessed and presented to USPS again.
That could leave voters with less time to receive their ballots, complete them and return them before Michigan’s election deadlines.
How serious that problem became would depend on the size of the mailing, how quickly election officials corrected it and how close the rejection occurred to Election Day.
More Than 2.2 Million Michiganders Voted By Mail
Michigan’s reliance on absentee voting makes the controversy particularly relevant here.
More than 2.23 million Michigan voters cast ballots by mail in the 2024 general election — about 39% of all ballots cast.
More than one-quarter of Michigan’s active registered voters also had joined the state’s permanent absentee-ballot list by the end of 2024.
Mail voting therefore isn’t a marginal part of Michigan’s election system.
It is one of the primary ways Michigan residents vote.
And Michigan’s recent election history demonstrates why problems potentially involving thousands of voters attract attention.
Michigan Elections Have Been Decided By Thousands Of Votes
Donald Trump carried Michigan over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election by just 10,704 votes.
Eight years later, Democrat Elissa Slotkin defeated Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat by only 19,006 votes.
Trump won Michigan’s 2024 presidential election over Kamala Harris by approximately 80,000 votes.
Michigan voters therefore demonstrated something else in 2024: two statewide races appearing on the same ballot can produce dramatically different margins.
Trump carried the state while Slotkin simultaneously won the Senate race by fewer than 20,000 votes.
Those numbers don’t demonstrate that a USPS problem would change an election result.
They demonstrate why an election-system problem potentially affecting thousands of Michigan voters deserves scrutiny.
HOW CLOSE HAVE MICHIGAN ELECTIONS BEEN?
2016 President
Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton: 10,704 votes2024 U.S. Senate
Elissa Slotkin over Mike Rogers: 19,006 votes2024 President
Donald Trump over Kamala Harris: about 80,000 votes2020 U.S. Senate
Gary Peters over John James: about 92,000 votes2020 President
Joe Biden over Donald Trump: 154,188 votes
USPS Says New System Would Protect Election Mail
The Postal Service maintains that its new system is intended to improve the reliability, accountability and tracking of election mail.
USPS would not determine whether someone is eligible to vote, whether a voter is a citizen or whether a completed ballot ultimately should be counted.
Those decisions remain with state and local election officials.
The Postal Service’s position is essentially that the new requirements are mailing standards intended to ensure ballot mail can be properly identified and tracked as it moves through the postal system.
Critics contend USPS is going much further — imposing federal requirements that could interfere with states’ administration of elections.
That disagreement is now before the courts.
The USPS Rule Is Blocked
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined other states challenging the new requirements.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani temporarily blocked core provisions of the USPS rule Aug. 27, including requirements involving the new federal ballot-mail portal and provisions allowing USPS to refuse affected ballot mailings.
On Aug. 31, Talwani refused requests to lift that order.
The Trump administration has asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene and allow USPS to implement the requirements while the litigation continues.
Talwani also has scheduled a Sept. 3 hearing to consider whether the temporary order should be replaced with a longer-lasting preliminary injunction.
For Michigan voters, the immediate takeaway is straightforward:
The controversial requirements are not currently in effect.
The disruptions described by the whistleblower are potential consequences if the Trump administration succeeds in reinstating the rule — not evidence that Michigan absentee ballots are presently being rejected.
Supreme Court Could See The Fight Again
The U.S. Supreme Court already has considered an earlier stage of the controversy.
On Aug. 24, the Court lifted an earlier injunction involving President Trump’s executive order after concluding that Michigan and other states had challenged the policy before USPS issued a final rule.
The Court did not determine that the eventual USPS requirements were legal or constitutional.
USPS has now issued that final rule.
Michigan and other states have challenged it directly.
If the Trump administration loses before the 1st Circuit, it could seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
The same controversy therefore could return to the justices — this time with an actual USPS regulation to review.
That could transform the dispute from a question about whether states sued too soon into a much bigger one:
Does USPS have the legal authority to impose these requirements on states sending absentee ballots to voters?
The answer may come quickly.
Michigan’s election calendar isn’t waiting for the courts.
COMING WEDNESDAY — PART 2: Voting-rights attorney Marc Elias warns that uncertainty surrounding federal voting rules could become ammunition for challenges after a close election. MITechNews examines whether that could actually happen under Michigan law — and what Michigan voters can do if they’re concerned about relying on the mail.
