The U.S. Postal Service has stopped work on a mail-in voting portal at the center of President Trump’s push to tighten mail ballot rules, Postmaster General David Steiner confirmed Thursday. The halt follows a Supreme Court decision earlier this week that left a nationwide injunction in place, blocking the agency’s new mail voting rule from taking effect for the 2026 midterms.
“There’s an injunction so we’re not doing anything,” Steiner said. The Supreme Court on Monday declined the Trump administration’s request to pause the injunction, which was originally issued on Sept. 4 by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts. That ruling means states can continue using their existing mail ballot procedures for this election cycle.
Whistleblower Complaint Raised Alarm Before Halt
The portal had already drawn scrutiny before the court’s move. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to Steiner on Aug. 31 after receiving information from a whistleblower, warning of a “perilously rushed and potentially unlawful implementation” of Trump’s executive order. Steiner said he had read portions of Blumenthal’s letter but stood by his team, saying he had planned to unveil the portal this week.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that we worked fast,” Steiner said. “My personal opinion is it was a monumental task and I’m very proud of our IT department for being able to do it that fast.” Steiner declined to say whether he personally supported the underlying policy, framing his role as one focused solely on operations. “I don’t get to decide what rules that are put on us that I decide to accept or not accept,” he said. “I looked at it more from the execution side.”
As part of the USPS mail voting rule, states were required to provide the agency with lists of mail ballot recipients, and all outbound and return ballot envelopes would have needed unique barcodes. The Postal Service could have refused to deliver ballots that did not comply or were linked to voters not appearing on state lists.
What the Rule Required and What Comes Next
Trump signed the original executive order in March, arguing that stronger safeguards were needed to maintain public confidence in elections. “Unique ballot envelope identifiers, such as bar codes, enable confirmation that only citizens receive and cast ballots, reducing the risk of fraud and protecting the integrity of Federal elections,” the president wrote in the order.
All 50 states permit some form of mail voting, with 29 allowing ballots without a stated reason and eight conducting elections entirely by mail. The injunction blocks the mandatory portions of the Postal Service’s final rule published Aug. 26, which was designed to implement the order. The Trump administration filed an emergency application on Sept. 6 asking the Supreme Court to pause that injunction, but the justices refused.
The legal fight is unlikely to end there. Justice Brett Kavanaugh signaled he could rule in the administration’s favor if the matter returns to the court in a future case. That leaves open the possibility that Trump’s mail ballot standards could still take effect for future elections, even as states and voters head into the 2026 midterms under the existing rules.
