A mail-in ballot featuring California’s Proposition 50 is seen in this illustration taken in Encinitas, California, U.S., October 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
The U.S. Postal Service proposed new rules Friday that would require states to provide voter-level data on mail-in ballots in federal elections, one day after a federal judge declined to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening mail-in voting rules.
The proposal would require states to submit to the Postal Service the names and addresses of voters receiving mail-in or absentee ballots, along with unique barcodes tied to each voter’s outbound and return ballot envelopes.
USPS said the rule would help determine how many ballots were mailed and allow officials to compare that figure with the number of ballots returned to detect potential issues for further investigation.
The rule would apply to general, special and runoff federal elections, but not primaries or ballots sent to military and overseas voters.
The proposal shifts USPS from recommending ballot-mail practices to mandating them for federal elections. The rule would require official logos, tracking barcodes, and a reporting system linking voters to specific envelopes.
USPS would use the data to create state-specific “Mail-In and Absentee Participation Lists” through a new Federal Ballot Mail Portal. The proposal would also let the USPS return outbound federal ballot mailings that do not meet the new standards or are not tied to state-submitted voter lists.
States would still control who is eligible to vote by mail. The Constitution designates states to oversee most election-related functions, not the federal government.
The rule follows Trump’s March 31 executive order on elections that directed USPS to begin a rulemaking on mail-in and absentee ballot services.
A federal judge on Thursday declined to immediately block the mail-voting provisions of the order, finding the challenge premature because agencies had not yet carried it out.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judge’s Thursday ruling leaves open the possibility that Democrats could challenge the policy again once the administration takes further steps to implement it.
Democrats and many voting rights groups have argued that Trump’s order intrudes on states’ authority over elections and could make it harder to vote by mail. The administration in the past has defended steps to tighten the process as election-integrity measures.
The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on June 2. Public comments are due 30 days after publication.
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