The U.S. Postal Service is becoming a central issue in the midterm election cycle, as election officials raise concerns about timely ballot delivery while the Trump administration pushes for stricter controls on mail voting.
President Trump issued an executive order in March seeking to establish a national voter list to determine mail ballot eligibility. The order has faced legal challenges, with a federal judge in Massachusetts blocking it last month and an appeals court upholding that ruling. Trump has appealed to the Supreme Court, though a separate appeals court for the District of Columbia declined to block the order on Tuesday, calling a legal challenge premature. Democratic officials in nearly two dozen states filed suit, and Democratic senators and governors have urged the Postal Service to abandon efforts to implement the order.
Election administrators across multiple states have flagged delivery delays. California officials reported rejecting more than 148,000 ballots from its June primary, with the majority arriving too late despite a seven-day grace period. Wisconsin experienced similar problems in April, with hundreds of ballots arriving late. Election offices in Kansas and Michigan are now recommending voters hand-deliver ballots or use drop boxes rather than mail them. The Postal Service attributed some delays to consolidation of mail processing into fewer regional centers, where mail now travels an average of 139 miles but sometimes up to 500 miles. A January change ending twice-daily mail dispatches from local offices to regional centers has also affected processing times.
Trump has repeatedly attacked mail voting as “inherently corrupt,” though research shows fraud is extremely rare. A 2025 Brookings report identified approximately four fraud cases per 10 million mail ballots cast. Despite the criticism, mail voting remains popular, with nearly 30% of U.S. voters using the method in 2024. The American Postal Workers Union opposes using the Postal Service as an election administrator, with union leadership stating the method “works” and opposing any effort to restrict who can vote by mail.
The Postal Service stated it remains “committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process” and said it cannot comment on implementation of Trump’s order due to ongoing litigation. A 2024 inspection report found the agency delivered 97.3% of ballot mail on time between September and November that year.
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