An anonymous federal whistleblower has warned that the Trump administration’s new system for handling mail ballots through the U.S. Postal Service is untested, fatally flawed and likely to lead to a “catastrophic failure” if it’s implemented ahead of November’s midterm elections. This follows President Trump’s executive order in March directing his administration to create federal lists of citizens and to refuse delivery of mail-in ballots to people not on those lists. The legality of Trump’s executive order is being challenged. The new hurdles raised by the executive order for mail ballots and the rushed software system built to administer them “create this potential for grave, catastrophic failure,” says David Kligerman from Whistleblower Aid, the organization representing the whistleblower.

With the midterm elections two months away, a federal whistleblower has warned that the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail voting system is untested, fatally flawed and likely to lead to a “catastrophic failure” if it’s implemented ahead of November’s midterm elections. Critics warn the system could disenfranchise millions of voters.

In March, President Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to create federal lists of citizens and directing the Postal Service to refuse delivery of mail-in ballots to people not on those lists. Voting rights groups and state officials have sued to block the new rules.

  • CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    23·
    17 days ago

    Just wanted to say that in many of the mail-only states, you can still cut out the post office. For example, in WA, you can print out your ballot at home and drop it into a ballot box. There’s no requirement to use the postal service.

    For WA, simply sign into votewa.gov, navigate to “Your Ballot & Voting Materials”, then “Get a replacement ballot”, and finally, select “Print a replacement ballot”. Additionally, you can request pick up a new ballot in person on the same “Get a replacement ballot” page.

    While everyone should be able to vote through mail, I highly discourage returning your ballot through the postal service for obvious reasons. Most counties in WA have placed plenty of ballot boxes, usually there is one within a mile or so of you. VoteWA shows drop box locations as well.

    • savvie@lemmy.zipOP
      4·
      17 days ago

      GOP is attempting another cluster fuck coup on the order of January 6 & Bush v. Gore

      AMY GOODMAN: In the complaint, the whistleblower wrote, quote, ”USPS leadership, it appears, has discarded all best practices as they speed the project to be ready for a September 1 implementation — raising questions about whether catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug.” While the whistleblower hasn’t spoken publicly, Senator Blumenthal appeared on MS NOW on Tuesday night to talk about the whistleblower’s warning.

      SEN. Richard Blumenthal: What he reveals is not only that the White House is breaking the law overtly, but for the first time using the Postal Service as an online gatekeeper with a system that screens those ballots and then, in effect, disqualifies individual ballots based on some discrepancy — the name, the barcode. Any tiny discrepancy, and the whole batch is thrown back to state officials. Now, the interesting thing and the outrageous part of it is that this online system is constructed in a way that it’s designed to fail. Failure is not a bug; it’s a feature.

      • savvie@lemmy.zipOP
        3·
        17 days ago

        & the GOP-dominated US Supreme Court is most certainly not going to intervene in any way to rectify this blatant attack on the democratic process of casting a ballot in a federal election in the United States