Trump's Trials - Whistleblower says Trump mail-in voting plan could "derail" midterms

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

An anonymous federal official warned in a whistleblower complaint that a technical system the Postal Service built for mail voting is flawed and, if implemented, likely to disrupt the fall midterms. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports. And attorney David Kligerman, who is representing the whistleblower, speaks to NPR -- and does not rule out his client testifying in court. Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detrow, and this is Trump's terms from NPR. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's coverage of the Trump administration with the focus on actions and policies that take the presidency into uncharted territory. Here's the latest from NPR. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Lela Fald. Good morning. A whistleblower is warning that the U.S. Postal Service could derail the midterm election with its plan to follow an order by President Trump. That order is attempting to restrict mail-in voting.

And for now, a court ruling is blocking key parts of the Postal Service plan. And PR's Hansi Loong joins us now to explain what this all means for voters. Good morning, Hansi. Good morning, Leela. Okay, so we have this whistleblower report about what the Postal Service is doing. Who is this person? And what are their concerns? This is an anonymous federal government official who filed a report with a nonprofit called whistleblower aid.

And the concern is that the Postal Service has been preparing to roll. out a new online system for collecting names of mail and voters from state election officials as required by Trump's order. And I should note USPS is a financial support of NPR. And what this report says is that that system is not ready. And if the courts allow USPS to require states to use it, there may be a lot of eligible mail and voters who will not get their ballots in time for the midterms or at all. Okay, that's a lot of at stake for voters. What could stop ballots from getting delivered? Well, part of the Postal's services plan is to check the ballot envelope states want to send out for the midterms. And the

voters names that have to match with voters names on the envelopes have to match with what is in that portal report claims that portal system has not been properly tested and that USPS has set up an unusually strict policy for checking envelopes. Basically, there could be major delays in getting out ballots if there's any discrepancy between what's on the envelopes and the mail-in voter list states submit through the portal. And USPS says in a statement they are carefully reviewing the concerns raised in this whistleblower report. It was submitted to USPS by Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. And here's what the senator told here and now.

This system seems designed to fail, which is consistent with the president's dislike of mail-in balloting, but it is also illegal, unconstitutional, and unconscionable. I mean, this is coming up, Hansi, with Election Day about two months away. So absentee ballots have to go out soon, right? Yes. In fact, North Carolina has to start mailing out its mail ballots this Friday. But there's still a lot of uncertainty because the legal fight over the U.S.PS plan for Trump's order is still playing out. You know, for now, like you said, key parts of the plan are still blocked.

And that ruling has been appealed. And the Supreme Court will likely have to weigh in on the order's legality. Trump said he issued these directives for U.S.PS to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens. which many studies and audits have found to be extremely rare. But a federal judge in Boston has ruled the Postal Service's plan is likely illegal because USPS has no authority to control voting by mail. Okay, a lot to keep track of in the courts. So what should voters take away from all this?

It's a very uncertain time, especially for parts of the country who that vote by mail only. And many election officials are trying to come up with backup plans. But for most of the country, the thing to keep in mind right now, mail and voting is still, a viable option just as it was when President Trump voted by mail in Florida earlier this year. And right now, USPS is expected to deliver balance as usual for the midterms. A new court ruling could change that, but we don't know when that could come. So we'll keep watching. That is NPR's Hansi Lo Wong. Hansi, thank you. You're welcome.

Let's bring on a lawyer who is representing the whistleblower Hansi discussed. David Cligerman is the lawyer's name, a senior vice president and special counsel at whistlebloweraid.org. Good morning, sir. Good morning. Pleasure to be here. Okay, I just want to underline this whistleblower is not named. You're withholding their name for their security, I presume. Is this person senior enough within USPS to know what they're talking about? I think the person certainly has enough visibility within the whole system at USPS to know exactly what he's talking about. And when you talk to him, he sounds credible and gives lots of details.

This individual has given details. And we're also confident that if the Postal Service were called upon and required to release, information about this, this information that they have and documents and otherwise would confirm this. Okay, so let's just talk through how the system is supposed to work. Let's say a state that is contested this year, Michigan, just to pick a state, sends out a batch of absentee ballots to people so that they can fill out those ballots and return them through the mail. What happens under this postal service process? So under this postal service process, well, let me explain what happens. The ordinary process is that in past elections, the state puts the ballot.

in the mail and they go to the voters, beginning and end, right? Normal process. Under this new process, now there's a number of gates that states have to go through to get the ballots, the blank ballots, delivered to voters. First, they have to enter information into this new portal, completely new. That's being built hastily, all this, I should add. Then they, if they want to bring the ballots down to the post office before they can do that in batches of $1,000, $10,000, they have to enter manifest into the system. They have to match the initial voter list that the states have put together. And then when they bring them down to the post office, they have to have a sampling. And if any one of the ballots in the sample is bad, something is wrong, the reader doesn't work, the barcode is

smudged, it goes back to the state again and they've got to start again. And so, wait a minute, the whole batch, if they sent out 10,000 or 100,000 ballots at once, they would all be returned. Absolutely. For one mistake. One mistake. And by the way, a mistake that may not be a mistake, right, because they've hastily put together the IT system. So it very well may be that the ballot is, in every ballot is completely 100% correct. But as a whistleblower complaint alleges and it goes into, the entire IT system has been built in a matter of weeks when it should be built in maybe a year or more. And so there's no guarantee.

In fact, when they've tested this IT system, it's crashed. So you've got a zero percent failure rate, which, by the way, is unprecedented. No other part of the mail system has this. and then it's based on checking and verifying against the system that's been built in a way that almost seems designed to fail. Is it your allegation then that many people would just never receive an absentee ballot to fill out? That's the biggest concern, yes. Okay. Let's think about the government's justification for this. They're saying we're just checking. We're just checking the names.

We want to check this against a voter database and see if this is a real voter who is receiving this absentee ballot. What's wrong with that? You know, one of the things that's potentially wrong with that is that as the lawsuits that are going on alleged and as the court in Massachusetts is thus far held during their injunction, the new injunction, that exceeds the post office's authority. The post office's job is to deliver mail to the addressee. It's not to be involved in elections. But beyond that, this is a solution that does not meet the problem, right? I mean, if you want to verify to whom it's sent to, there's a very different way to do it than this. And certainly you would have to take quite a bit of time to mess with the crown jewel of American democracy, which is elections and with a third of Americans voting by ballots. Just got about 10 seconds left. I want to know if your whistleblower, your client in effect, would be willing to testify in these ongoing court cases. I think everything is potentially open right now. I think that individuals come forward because

they're concerned about this. And I think if they had to, they would do what they had to do. David Cligerman of whistlebloweraid.org. Thanks so much. My pleasure. Thank you. And before we wrap up, a thank you to our NPR Plus supporters who hear each show without sponsored messages and, of course, who help protect independent journalism. If you are not a supporter yet, you can visit plus.npr.org to find out how you can get a ton of podcast perks across dozens of NPR shows, like bonus episodes, exclusive merchandise, and more.

Again, that's plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.