A mail-in ballot representing California’s Proposition 50 is seen in this illustration taken in Encinitas, California, US, on October 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | reuters
US Postal Service proposed new rules States will be required to provide voter-level data on mail-in ballots in federal elections on Friday, a day after a federal judge declined to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening mail-in voting rules.
Proposal States will be required to submit to the Postal Service the names and addresses of voters receiving mail-in or absentee ballots, as well as the unique barcodes associated with each voter’s outbound and return ballot envelope.
USPS said the rule will help determine how many ballots were mailed and allow officials to compare that figure with the number of ballots returned to detect potential issues for further investigation.
This rule would apply to general, special and runoff federal elections, but not to primaries or ballots mailed to military and overseas voters.
The proposal shifts the USPS focus from recommending ballot-mail practices to mandating them for federal elections. The rule would require an official logo, tracking barcodes and a reporting system linking voters to specific envelopes.
The USPS will use the data to create state-specific “mail-in and absentee participation lists” through a new federal ballot mail portal. The proposal would also allow the USPS to return outbound federal ballots that do not meet the new standards or are not tied to state-submitted voter lists.
States will still control who is eligible to vote by mail. The Constitution designates the states, not the federal government, to oversee most election-related functions.
The rule follows Trump’s March 31 executive order on elections that directed the USPS to begin creating rules on mail-in and absentee ballot services.
A federal judge on Thursday declined to immediately block the order’s mail-voting provisions, finding the challenge premature because the agencies had not yet implemented it.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judge’s ruling Thursday left open the possibility that Democrats could again challenge the policy if the administration takes further steps to enforce it.
Democrats and many voting rights groups have argued that Trump’s order interferes with states’ authority over elections and could make it harder to vote by mail. In the past the administration has defended steps to tighten the process as election-integrity measures.
The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on June 2. Public comments are due 30 days after publication.