The United States Postal Service (USPS) has published a final draft of its proposed rules to restrict the use of mail-in ballots under President Donald Trump. The rules have so far been blocked by the US court system. But the USPS shared the 95-page update on Friday so that the rules can go into effect immediately if the existing court injunction is reversed.
Under the proposed rules, the Postal Service will not distribute mail-in ballots in states that do not comply with federal demands for voter records. States would be required to identify to the USPS any voters who have requested mail-in ballots. They would also have to redesign the ballot envelopes to feature barcodes that the Postal Service could use to track and identify voting materials.
In the 95-page document, the USPS argued that such changes were necessary to ensure compliance with federal law. They warn that the Postal Service could use the proposed rules to gather voter information and reject ballots in states that do not comply with Trump’s demands. Since returning to office for a second term in 2025, Trump has sought to place additional restrictions on voting, based on false claims of widespread election fraud.
He has, for instance, continued to maintain that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election, a race he lost. Trump has also used claims of “rigged” voting to cast doubt on other elections where the outcome was not in his favour. Earlier this year, for instance, he accused the state of California of “cheating” in its primary races, after several Republican candidates fell short of his expectations.
Mail-in ballots have been a longstanding focus of Trump’s efforts to exert greater control over the electoral process. Though he has criticised the voting method as ripe for fraud — an unsubstantiated allegation — Trump himself has voted by mail on multiple occasions, including in this month’s Florida primary. Repeated studies have shown that election fraud is exceedingly rare in the US.
Every state has laws barring noncitizen voting and fraudulent ballot-casting. In March, however, Trump issued an executive order instructing the Postal Service to implement new rules about mail-in ballots. Friday’s 95-page document is a response to that demand.
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