US Postal Service Halts Work on Trump Mail Ballot Restriction System After Supreme Court Injunction, Postmaster General Confirms on September 17

The US Postal Service has stopped work on developing a controversial computer system that was central to President Donald Trump's effort to limit mail voting after the Supreme Court rejected his executive order this week, Postmaster General David Steiner confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday September 17. Steiner, who took office in July 2025 and previously served as CEO of Waste Management from 2004 to 2016, told the AP there's an injunction so we're not doing anything, following a Supreme Court ruling earlier this week that rejected Trump's executive order for the 2026 federal election. A memo sent to all postal service employees Wednesday and obtained by the AP said the agency will not be enforcing any of these new rules in the 2026 federal election, with first and foremost for Election Mail it is business as usual. The halted system was designed to verify voter eligibility through a federally compiled list and enforce new ballot envelope requirements, effectively placing USPS in an unprecedented gatekeeping role to determine which voters would receive ballots despite longstanding constitutional principles that reserve election administration to the states and Congress. A whistleblower report released earlier this month by Senator Richard Blumenthal argued the system was hastily built and riddled with errors. Steiner acknowledged he knew about the order about a month before it was unveiled but said his focus was largely on implementation rather than the policy's merits, and he read portions of the whistleblower report while acknowledging the obstacles associated with building such a massive platform quickly. Though the Supreme Court rejected Trump's executive order for this year's election, Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated he might rule in favor of the administration if the issue comes back before the court at a later time. Trump's efforts to largely eradicate mail voting turned the Postal Service into an unlikely arbiter of who is eligible to vote just