Trump Executive Order Targets Mail Balloting Amid Growing USPS Delays

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March directing the United States Postal Service (USPS) to create a national list of eligible voters and to limit mail-in ballots to those on the list. The order has sparked multiple lawsuits, a federal judge’s injunction in Massachusetts, an appeals-court affirmation of that injunction, and an appeal to the Supreme Court. Democratic officials in nearly two dozen states have filed a separate suit in Massachusetts, while a D.C. appeals court declined to block the order in a different case, calling the challenge premature.

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The USPS has been consolidating regional processing centers, causing mail to travel an average of 139 miles and sometimes up to 500 miles before reaching a center. In January, Democratic senators expressed concern about ending twice-daily dispatches from local post offices, a move that can delay postmarks by a full day. California officials linked the change to the rejection of more than 148,000 primary ballots, with 63 % arriving after the deadline despite a seven-day grace period. Wisconsin reported hundreds of late ballots in an April election. The USPS Office of Inspector General noted that the service handled over 59 million pieces of ballot mail over a recent period, with 97.3 % arriving on time. In 2024, roughly 30 % of U.S. voters cast ballots by mail, according to federal data.

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It also offered free postmarks applied by postal workers for voters who need them. Michigan’s deputy secretary of state, Aghogho Edevbie, advised voters to hand-deliver ballots, noting, “We’ve seen these issues over a number of election cycles now — they’re always concerning, and that’s why we’ve put out that guidance.”

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• “Hopefully there will be no mail-in ballots.” — The Michigan

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• “We want to keep vote by mail. We want to protect it. We want to expand it,” — Jonathan Smith, halted the executive

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• “Donald Trump has shown he'll stop at nothing to meddle in our upcoming elections,” — Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin

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• “We've seen these issues over a number of election cycles now — they're always concerning, and that's why we've put out that guidance," said Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie.” — Deputy Secretary, of State Aghogho Edevbie

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• “I think voters are used to, you can drop it off on Friday and we're going to receive it by Election Day," Shew said Tuesday.” — Jamie Shew

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With the first midterm ballots to be mailed in roughly six weeks, the USPS’s operational changes and the pending Supreme Court decision on Trump’s order are poised to influence voter access. Election officials in Kansas, Michigan, and other swing states are urging voters to use in-person drop-offs or hand-delivery to avoid potential delays, while the American Postal Workers Union, representing 200,000 members, opposes turning the USPS into an election administrator, arguing that “it works” to keep vote-by-mail available and protected.

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