News Room

SAINT PAUL – On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new rule changing how it handles mail ballots.

On August 27, 2026, the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts put a hold on the implementation of the new rule after it was challenged by Minnesota, 23 other states and voting rights organizations.

On August 31, 2026, the American Postal Workers Union issued a statement opposing the final rule on mail-in voting.

Also on August 31, 2026, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal made public a whistleblower disclosure outlining the “perilously rushed and potentially unlawful implementation” of the rule. (Read Senator Blumenthal’s letter to the Postmaster General)

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon issued the following statement:

“First and foremost – I want Minnesotans to know that nothing has changed. Voting by mail is still the same as it has been in Minnesota.

We expect that to remain the case for the November election – despite the federal government’s continued efforts to interfere with state-run elections.

I want to be clear - Minnesota’s election systems are secure – they are governed by state and federal law – as outlined by the U.S. Constitution.

There is absolutely no reason to change our mail voting system.

Minnesota has allowed mail voting since the Civil War.

And voting by mail is popular - In 2024, around 14% of voters – or 450,000 Minnesotans voted by mail. That includes our service members abroad, students studying out of state, and Minnesotans who live in primarily rural areas where local officials have decided to conduct elections exclusively by mail.

The USPS attempt to implement a rule to fundamentally change the way voting by mail works within weeks of the start of voting for a general election is outrageous and unprecedented.

A rushed implementation of this rule would create a very high likelihood of voter confusion and disenfranchisement.

That is why we – and 23 other states and voting rights advocates - are in court over this issue.

This week, we have reporting from staff inside USPS who say that this plan is “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed.”

And the organization that represents rank and file postal workers - the dedicated people who sort and deliver the mail - calls the rule “wrong and unconstitutional” - that should be all you need to hear.

We hope that courts will continue to see this plan for what it is - unconstitutional interference from the federal government, threatening the accessibility and security of voting by mail.

But hope isn’t a plan.

So - our office is evaluating the rule and making plans to work with local governments to help them understand the requirements of this new rule if it takes effect.

I want to make clear - this rule, if ever implemented, would only apply to outgoing mail. If a voter gets a ballot in the mail – they should not have any issue returning it.

That said, the rule would require a massive surge in staffing by local election offices – requiring an untold number of new election officials to be hired and trained immediately.

There are three key provisions of the new rule.

First, rule requires the creation of a new portal by USPS.

This portal would be used by states to submit the list of voters and by USPS to track ballots. As of September 2, it is not currently functional. It has never been seen by anyone outside of USPS.

 A whistleblower from USPS has publicly disclosed that development has only been in process for 3 months – and that the system is completely untested.

Second, the rule requires each state to provide a list of voters to USPS.

This list would only contain public voter information.

The process to get USPS this list would require significant time by election officials to merge existing voter information with to-be-created information from USPS.

Third, the rule requires all mail ballots to be approved by the post office.

Part of this process would require an election official to go to a post office to scan in ballots. USPS says each ballot could take up to a minute to process.

Minnesota mailed out more than 450,000 ballots in 2024. This process would delay the transmission of ballots as it would require at minimum 7,500 hours to process the same number of ballots sent in 2024.

Even more concerning – the whistleblower states that USPS is adopting a zero percent fail policy. Under this policy, if one ballot is scanned incorrectly the entire batch would be rejected.

The bottom line is that the new rule issued by USPS would be an unworkable mess.

Minnesota has strong, tested laws and procedures to ensure voting by mail is accessible and secure.

Minnesotans trust and rely on our system – and I’ll continue to defend their freedom to vote, however they choose to cast that ballot.”