USPS whistleblower describes new plans for voting by mail hidden from the public | CNN Politics
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The US Postal Service effort to develop a sweeping new system for verifying mail ballots has invited a host of IT concerns among agency officials, with some describing the process internally as a “sh*t show,” according to a new whistleblower report released Tuesday by a Democratic senator.

The US Postal Service effort to develop a sweeping new system for verifying mail ballots has invited a host of IT concerns among agency officials, with some describing the process internally as a “sh*t show,” according to a new whistleblower report released Tuesday by a Democratic senator.

The unnamed whistleblower is alleging that some of the procedures USPS is planning – under mandates put forward by President Donald Trump – have been hidden from the public. Those procedures will make an already complicated and risky plan even more vulnerable to potential mass disenfranchisement, the whistleblower says.

The new report – which was assembled by the whistleblowers’ lawyers and released by Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal – comes as multiple courts are considering the legality of the proposal, which would require that states submit to USPS lists of their mail-in voters. The agency will not deliver ballots for states if there are any discrepancies between the voter information in the USPS system and what’s picked up by agency scanners on the envelopes of the ballots.

    • Lemmayng@lemmy.worldEnglish
      311·
      21 hours ago

      I stopped trusting the mail for anything politicial ever since I participated in a postcard campaign for the 2024 election. I wrote a bunch of postcards to hundreds of people to remind them to vote, and I decided to write a few to my friends and family to verify that they were sent out. I stamped them, dropped them in the mailbox to be sent out on the day I was instructed to, and the 2024 election rolls around. I followed up with my friends and family to see if they got their postcards.

      Not a single one received them.

      Something undoubtedly fucky happened with the mail in 2024.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 hours ago

        Part of the conservative plot is to erode trust in government anything. Then they can dismantle it and sell it off for parts to the private sector.

        Education and the postal service are square in their targets and have been for decades. Same with things like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Right now, they are stoking intergenerational conflict aimed at “boomers” with claims like they are “too entitled”, there are “too many old people”, and so on. Mark my words, that will be one of the drumbeats to take it away, put it into the stock market (or donnie’s crypto schemes). And it’s not like boomers will be the only ones affected, of course…

      • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
        14·
        18 hours ago

        That’s why I’ve been saying that 2020 is likely the last free election this country ever had. Tons of pedo-fuckery happened in 2024 they’d made it their absolute goal to make voting nothing more than a symbolic gesture.

        Fuck. All. Of. Them.

    • AllYourSmurf@lemmy.world
      8·
      20 hours ago

      This was the goal all along. If the mail isn’t trustworthy, then there’s no reason to keep it around as a service. So we can get rid of it by transferring it to the highest briber bidder.

    • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
      8·
      20 hours ago

      Please see my previous post. By requesting a mail ballot, you are already trusting the USPS to get that ballot to you. Their plan is to disrupt this part of the process. They will be flagging whole batches of ballots when the election officials send them out, and they will hold up whole batches if even a single ballot recipient in a batch doesn’t exactly match their list of registered voters.

        • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
          6·
          20 hours ago

          Probably, but it depends where you live how that will go.

          The details differ from state to state. In some, you’ll be allowed to cast a regular ballot, and in others you’ll cast a “provisional” ballot, to be counted once election officials determine you haven’t already voted.

          Provisional ballots are a whole other shit show. Republicans have repeatedly tried to invalidate provisional ballots cast in previous elections. If at all possible, early voting is probably a better option.