WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, released a whistleblower disclosure alleging the U.S. Postal Service rushed an untested Federal Ballot Mail Portal into shape for the midterms, part of implementing President Donald Trump's executive order tightening mail voting — work that federal judges have repeatedly interrupted.

The Associated Press reported that the anonymous federal official, represented by Whistleblower Aid, says USPS tried to build in about three months a system that would normally take a year or more. The portal is meant for states to submit lists of verified mail voters and ballot-envelope barcodes under a final USPS rule issued after Trump's March order. Blumenthal, in remarks to reporters quoted by AP, said the Postal Service had "designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans."

Per the disclosure summary carried by AP, NPR, and CBS, USPS began portal work June 15, paused after an injunction, then restarted around July 29 while the administration appealed. Whistleblower Aid warned the Sept. 1 target rollout meant incomplete testing and "significant risk" that "potentially millions" of voters might not get mail ballots on time — or at all. The complaint also describes a "zero percent" failure approach: a single scanning mismatch in a batch of tens of thousands of envelopes could scrap the whole batch.

Those are allegations, not adjudicated findings. USPS did not comment Monday night, AP said. The White House did not immediately respond Tuesday; it has called the mail-voting provisions "commonsense measures" against fraud. A Brookings report cited by AP put documented mail-ballot fraud at roughly four cases per 10 million ballots.

The legal track is messy. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston barred midterm implementation; the Supreme Court later found that premature and cleared a path; USPS then published a final rule Aug. 21 requiring approved envelope designs and portal voter lists; Talwani issued a 14-day restraining order Thursday against forcing states onto the system. On Monday she refused to lift that order but said USPS could keep building the portal so long as states are not compelled to use it. North Carolina starts sending some mail ballots Friday.

Blumenthal wrote Postmaster General David Steiner urging the agency to scrap the plan. If the rule somehow takes effect for the midterms, he said he would not advise voting by mail. Executive power over how ballots move through the post office is the story underneath the IT drama: when the White House and USPS rewrite the mail channel this close to an election, courts and voters find out in real time whether "buy" still means delivery.

Sources