A mail ballot showing California’s Proposition 50 is seen in this photo taken in Encinitas, California, US, October 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
The US Postal Service proposed new rules on Friday that would require states to provide voter turnout information on mail-in ballots in federal elections, one day after a federal judge refused to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening voting rules.
The proposal would require states to send to the Postal Service the names and addresses of voters who receive absent or absentee ballots, as well as unique barcodes attached to each voter’s outgoing and returned ballot envelope.
The USPS said the rule would help determine how many ballots were sent and allow officials to compare that number with the number of returned ballots to identify problems that could be investigated.
This rule shall apply to general, special and run-off elections, but not primaries or ballots mailed to military and overseas voters.
This proposal shifts the USPS from recommending voting methods to approving them for federal elections. The law would require official logos, tracking barcodes, and a reporting system that links voters to specific envelopes.
USPS will use the data to create a state-focused “Participatory Mail and Absentee List” through the new Federal Ballot Mail Portal. The proposal would also allow the USPS to return outgoing federal ballots that do not meet the new standards or are not tied to the state-sent voter list.
States will still regulate who is eligible to vote by mail. The Constitution appoints the states to oversee many election-related functions, not the federal government.
USPS did not respond to a request for comment.
The rule follows Trump’s March 31 executive order that directed the USPS to begin regulating mail-in and absentee ballot services.
A judge on Thursday declined to immediately block the mail-in voting provisions, ruling out an early challenge because the unions had not yet done so.
“The entire Trump Administration will continue to enforce the agenda that President Trump has been elected to implement — including the security and safety of America’s elections,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CNBC. “This campaign promise from the President is why millions of Americans returned him to the White House…”
The judge’s decision on Thursday leaves open the possibility that Democrats may challenge the policy again if the administration takes other steps to implement it.
Democrats and many voting rights groups say Trump’s order interferes with states’ voting rights and makes it harder to vote by mail. In the past the administration has defended measures to strengthen the process as measures of electoral integrity.
The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on June 2. Public comment is due 30 days after publication.
