[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-whistleblower-says-new-usps-ballot-screening-system-isnt-ready":10,"sections":34},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":29,"feedback":33,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":33,"total_tokens":33},6021,"whistleblower-says-new-usps-ballot-screening-system-isnt-ready","Whistleblower Says New USPS Ballot Screening System Isn't Ready","A federal whistleblower told Congress USPS rushed a new ballot barcode system that could reject entire batches of valid mail ballots ahead of the midterms.","USPS built a new system to screen mail-in ballots in under three months, and it might already be too broken to trust.\n\nA whistleblower disclosure filed August 30 with Senator Richard Blumenthal's office, through the nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, alleges USPS leadership pushed ahead with a September 1 launch of its Federal Ballot Mail Portal despite internal warnings the software wasn't ready, and even after a federal court ordered the underlying work stopped in June. The Portal cross-checks barcodes on state voter lists against ballot manifests and physical scans at post offices, and the whistleblower says USPS is enforcing a zero-tolerance rule: if one ballot in a batch fails to scan, the entire batch bounces back to the state. The disclosure says the full system wasn't assembled for testing until the week of August 24, leaving about four days to test software meant to help run a federal election. Blumenthal has given USPS until September 4 to answer questions and September 8 to hand over records.\n\nThis matters because the stakes of a bad scan just went up. A 2017 USPS inspector general audit found package-tracking scanners misread roughly one in twenty scans, and the whistleblower says applying even a fraction of that error rate to ballots could sweep valid votes into rejected batches, with no clear appeals process spelled out in the final rule.\n\nThe Portal is one piece of a broader push, following a Trump executive order and a Supreme Court decision letting it proceed, to rewrite mail-voting rules before evidence of the fraud it targets, which studies from Brookings and the American Immigration Council call rare, even materializes.","[\"usps\",\"election-security\",\"mail-in-voting\",\"policy\"]","2026-09-02T18:58:47.000Z","2026-09-02T20:52:07.358Z","2026-09-02T20:52:19.274Z","published",null,[],"policy",[26,27,28,24],"usps","election-security","mail-in-voting",[30],{"name":31,"url":32},"Mashable","https:\u002F\u002Fmashable.com\u002Ftech\u002Fwhistleblower-alleges-mail-in-ballot-system-rushed-not-ready",0,{"sections":35},[36,41,46,50,55,60,65,70,75,80,85,90,95,100],{"name":37,"slug":38,"count":39,"latest_published_at":40},"AI","ai",3385,"2026-09-04T22:17:36.000Z",{"name":42,"slug":43,"count":44,"latest_published_at":45},"Security","security",565,"2026-09-05T00:03:08.000Z",{"name":47,"slug":24,"count":48,"latest_published_at":49},"Policy",300,"2026-09-04T22:18:34.000Z",{"name":51,"slug":52,"count":53,"latest_published_at":54},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":56,"slug":57,"count":58,"latest_published_at":59},"Hardware","hardware",152,"2026-09-03T09:26:48.000Z",{"name":61,"slug":62,"count":63,"latest_published_at":64},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",97,"2026-09-04T15:29:18.000Z",{"name":66,"slug":67,"count":68,"latest_published_at":69},"Science","science",96,"2026-09-03T22:30:00.000Z",{"name":71,"slug":72,"count":73,"latest_published_at":74},"Software","software",73,"2026-08-18T07:51:50.000Z",{"name":76,"slug":77,"count":78,"latest_published_at":79},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":81,"slug":82,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Startups","startups",54,"2026-09-04T23:36:14.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":88,"latest_published_at":89},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":91,"slug":92,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"General","general",37,"2026-09-04T20:22:41.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":98,"latest_published_at":99},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]