Overview
- A federal judge in Washington enjoined the Postal Service from implementing proposed rules that would carry out the President’s March 2026 mail‑ballot executive order because the rules would violate a 2021 settlement from a 2020 NAACP lawsuit.
- The administration’s plan would have required states to give the USPS lists of mail‑voter participants and meet new ID and tracking conditions before the agency would transmit ballots for those states.
- The proposed rule calls for individualized barcodes on ballot envelopes for automated tracking and asks DHS to assemble voting‑age citizen lists from federal databases, steps critics say could lead to privacy risks and wrongful voter removals.
- Election officials and experts warn the barcode and list requirements would be costly and technically hard for many local jurisdictions to meet and could result in ballots not being delivered if they do not meet the new standards.
- The proposed rule remains published for public comment but cannot be enforced while multiple injunctions and lawsuits proceed, and appeals are expected to determine whether the changes could take effect before the 2026 midterms.