The Postal Service is moving forward with changing the regulations governing mail-in and absentee ballots in federal elections, even as the proposed rule remains tied up in litigation.
In a Federal Register notice on July 17, the Postal Service proposes creating a new Privacy Act System of Records (SOR) (2026-14508; 91 FR 44880). The notice coincides with the proposed ballot-mail rule it published on June 2.
The notice was not a surprise. Back on June 18, Democracy Docket reported that the Postal Service had provided advance notice of the SORN to two congressional committees and the Office of Management and Budget. The article indicated that the Postal Service would next send the notice to the Federal Register for publication.
In the notice, the Postal Service acknowledges that the proposal to amend the Domestic Mail Manual “is the subject of active litigation, including two injunctions that are currently being appealed.” One of the these injunctions was issued on June 25 in State of California v. Trump. A second was imposed on July 1 in NAACP v USPS, The government has filed motions to lift both of these injunctions, but no rulings on the stays have been issued.
According to today’s notice, the injunctions are not only preventing implementation of the ballot mail rule but also the publication of a final rule itself: “The Postal Service will not publish a final rule unless and until the government obtains relief from all relevant injunctions.”
If there’s no final rule, says the Postal Service, the SOR will not take effect: “If the Postal Service does not issue any final rule in connection with that rulemaking, then this System of Record will not take effect.”
The notice traces the rulemaking back to President Trump’s March 31 executive order: “On March 31, 2026, the President issued Executive Order 14399, Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections (‘Order’). Following the issuance of the Order, the Postal Service issued a proposed rule that (if finalized) would apply uniform standards for the mailing of absentee ballots, which the Postal Service understands will facilitate the faithful execution of federal law.”
The executive order did not itself require USPS to create a Privacy Act System of Records. The new records system is a legal and administrative prerequisite made necessary because implementing the proposed rule would require the Postal Service to maintain personally identifiable information about voters. It would thus be subject to the Privacy Act of 1974, which requires federal agencies to publish a notice in the Federal Register for each system of records that an agency maintains.
As USPS explains, “This notice is in accordance with the Privacy Act requirement that agencies publish their systems of records in the Federal Register when there is a revision, change, or addition, or when the agency establishes a new system of records (SOR).”
The system would allow the Postal Service to maintain “a list of individuals, each individual’s address, the unique Intelligent Mail barcodes printed on each individual’s outbound and return ballot envelope for a federal election, and the state or political subdivision thereof that issued such ballot for inclusion on a state’s Mail-in and Absentee Participation List.”
The information would be supplied to USPS by state election authorities or their designees: “The information covered by this SOR would be provided to the Postal Service by the chief election official of each state or any individual or entity, such as a mail service provider or an election official of that state or a political subdivision thereof, authorized by the chief election official to provide such information.”
The notice lists three purposes of the new system:
- To help determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts.
- To receive a list of individuals to whom a mail-in or absentee ballot is sent for a federal election, each individual’s address, the unique Intelligent Mail barcode printed on the outbound and return ballot envelopes containing the mail-in or absentee ballot that was sent to each individual, and the issuing state of such ballot provided by a state’s chief election official, or an authorized designee.
- To provide relevant election officials access to a Postal Service Federal Ballot Portal web page for submitting lists described in purpose 2.
The records system would cover “individuals receiving an absentee or mail-in ballot for federal elections through the U.S. Mail” as well as “individuals using the Postal Service Federal Ballot Portal.”
The records could be searched using information identifying individual voters: “Records are retrievable by personal identifiers including first and last name, address, issuing state, and barcode.”
The information would remain in the system well beyond the election: “Records are retained for 5 years.”
The Postal Service maintains that the system would not pose a privacy problem: “The Postal Service does not expect this new SOR to have any adverse effect on individual privacy rights.”
For now, the injunctions have stopped USPS from publishing a final rule, but they have not stopped the Postal Service from preparing the privacy, administrative and recordkeeping framework that would be needed to implement it if the Department of Justice ultimately prevails in court.
UPDATE: Hours after this post was published, an appeals court paused the injunction imposed by Judge Sullivan in NAACP v DeJoy. The USPS is still blocked from issuing a final rule due to the injunction issued 25 in State of California v. Trump, but that ruling is also being appealed.
— Steve Hutkins