Whistleblower warns of potential Postal Service system failure for midterms

A whistleblower on Monday warned that the U.S. Postal Service’s computer system is riddled with errors and could jeopardize mail-in voting in the November midterm elections, according to a statement from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

The individual said the Postal Service has attempted to build a complex system over a three-month time frame, beginning on or around June 15, to be used for the midterms, a process that typically takes a year or longer.

The work was expected to stop amid a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily halted President Trump’s executive order to limit voting by mail, a ruling that the Trump administration has appealed .

“The whistleblower’s allegations also provide disturbing information suggesting that USPS may have violated a court order by continuing to implement the EO despite being ordered to cease all such work,” Blumenthal wrote Monday in a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner.

“We urge you to abandon this ill-conceived, unconscionable plan and ensure that all Americans can exercise their constitutional right to vote, including by mail, without interference by USPS,” Blumenthal added.

The Hill has reached out to the Postal Service for comment.

Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani barred Trump’s executive order last month, but the Supreme Court overruled her after its conservative majority determined the block was premature. But Talwani issued her ruling again after siding with a group of blue states and private voting rights groups that claimed the executive order’s effect on the Postal Service was unconstitutional.

The order introduces a portal for the Postal Service to screen ballots submitted by state election officials. But the whistleblower identified “deeply flawed plans” with the portal and called the portal’s development “rushed” and “risky and haphazard.”

The whistleblower said standard and needed testing had been eliminated and that it created “the substantial risk of a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the system that could ‘derail the midterm elections,'” Blumenthal said, quoting the whistleblower.

“Without clear guidance, ‘[d]ifferent team members continued to have different understandings of how the system is supposed to function which caused ongoing and greater confusion among the group,’ substantially increasing the risk that the system will fail and, ultimately, disenfranchise voters,” the Connecticut Democrat wrote, again quoting the whistleblower.

Blumenthal called on Steiner to answer several questions from the Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, on which Blumenthal serves as the ranking member. He called the Postal Service’s plans a “seemingly illegal plot to interfere in November’s midterms.”

Questions included when Postal Service employees and contractors were told to develop the new portal, whether there will be beta testing for the portal, how long it will take to remedy false positives, whether or not the Postal Service has communicated with state officials about the portal and any records or communications about the date for when the portal would be completed, among other questions.

“Their system is set up to fail – and risk the right to vote for millions of Americans who cast their ballots by mail,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “Given this new information, such sloppiness and haste seems clearly part of a purposeful attempt to create chaos and prevent people from voting. I am demanding answers and accountability.”

The group Whistleblower Aid said in its summary of the whistleblower’s statement that the goal was to have the portal active on Tuesday. They called the process “sloppy” and said that it “poses significant risk.”

“Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,” Whistleblower Aid wrote. “The whistleblower’s assessment and recitation of the facts around the risky and haphazard development of the project is a compelling warning of catastrophic failure which could derail the midterm elections.”

The order follows years of unfounded claims made by the president, who claims that mail-in voting causes widespread voting discrepancies and is used to “rig” elections without substantial evidence.