Mail Ballot Delays and Trump’s Executive Order Put Postal Service in Election Spotlight

With roughly six weeks remaining before midterm ballots begin circulating, the U.S. Postal Service has emerged as a critical factor in determining which party controls Congress. President Donald Trump initiated an executive order in March aimed at establishing greater federal oversight of mail balloting through a national voter eligibility list, while simultaneous operational changes at the agency have prompted election officials to warn of potential delivery delays that could disenfranchise voters.

Democratic officials across multiple states have expressed alarm over recent ballot processing failures. California rejected more than 148,000 ballots from its June primary because they arrived past the deadline, with 63 percent missing the seven-day grace period, while Wisconsin experienced similar delays with hundreds of ballots in April elections. In response, election administrators in Kansas and Michigan have begun advising voters to hand-deliver ballots rather than relying on postal delivery.

The Postal Service attributed delivery problems to a January operational shift that eliminated twice-daily mail dispatches from local post offices to regional processing centers. This change means mail arriving after the single daily pickup faces a one-day delay. The agency said mail now travels an average of 139 miles to processing facilities, though some pieces traverse up to 500 miles, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.

Trump’s March executive order prompted the Postal Service to propose a rule in June establishing a national list of eligible mail voters based on federal databases, restricting ballot access to those on the list. The order has triggered multiple federal lawsuits, with a Massachusetts judge blocking it last month and an appeals court upholding that decision. Trump has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, though a separate D.C. appeals court on Tuesday declined to block the order immediately in another case.

Democratic senators and governors have urged the Postal Service to abandon implementation efforts. Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin stated the policy would “exacerbate already severe delays for mail-in voters and at worst, it will stop eligible Americans from casting their ballots.” Union officials said postal workers have begun preliminary work on a voter eligibility portal despite ongoing litigation.

Trump has repeatedly attacked mail voting as inherently fraudulent despite using the method himself and losing his 2020 race to Democrat Joe Biden. Brookings research identified approximately four fraud cases for every 10 million mail ballots cast in 2025. Despite these attacks, nearly 30 percent of American voters cast ballots by mail in 2024, and the method remains popular across both major parties.

Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers Union representing 200,000 members, emphasized that mail voting “works” and should be protected and expanded rather than administered by federal authorities. The union opposes assigning postal workers responsibility for determining voter eligibility, arguing it falls outside their proper function.

Michigan officials reported distributing more than 2 million absentee ballots ahead of the state’s August 4 primary, though the secretary of state’s office continues recommending hand-delivery to avoid delays. A 2024 USPS Office of Inspector General report found the agency processed more than 59 million pieces of ballot mail between September 1 and November 15, with 97.3 percent arriving on time, though this performance has deteriorated recently.