How USPS Politicization And Last-Minute Changes Put Election Confidence At Risk

A critical question arises: can we trust the systems responsible for ensuring the legitimacy of our votes? This issue is more pressing now, given the recent USPS directive, quietly issued at the end of September, to reroute mail-in ballots outside of the usual processing channels. The foundation of confidence in our electoral system demands that any deviation from established norms undergo rigorous scrutiny. The timing and nature of this last-minute change by the USPS not only threatens transparency but also risks compromising the integrity of our democratic processes. Combined with the partisan leanings of postal workers’ unions, this raises serious concerns about undermining public trust in our elections.

Historically, the USPS has relied on centralized processing facilities where each piece of mail, including absentee ballots, is scanned, photographed and weighed. The scanning equipment used is primarily the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking (MICT) system, which was introduced in 2001. Manufactured by Northrop Grumman, these machines are designed to capture an image of each piece of mail, allowing it to be tracked throughout the entire mail-handling process. This technology has provided a robust audit trail for all mail processed, ensuring a high level of transparency and accountability. This scanning process serves not only as a logistical necessity but also as a fundamental check on the integrity of the system. Each mail piece leaves behind a digital fingerprint—an image that can be used to cross-check, count and verify delivery against numbers reported by election officials. This ensures transparency; it allows voters and watchdog groups alike to verify that the numbers match up, that ballots sent are accounted for and that they safely reach their destination without tampering or manipulation.

The new directive effectively sidelines this crucial verification process. Mail-in ballots, instead of passing through these central facilities, are now routed directly to local Boards of Elections (BOEs) without the standard imaging.

I never understood why Democrats were so focused on deploying thousands of ballot drop boxes—we’ve got post offices in every town and city across the country. Why build a secondary collection infrastructure? That was before I realized the USPS was scanning and photographing every ballot. This process allowed election officials to determine whether excess ballots were turned in outside of the USPS or if some ballots were excluded. The directive from the USPS to have ballots bypass facilities where they would be scanned and photographed could be a convenient alternative for someone intent on avoiding accountability, auditability or transparency.

There is no known precedent for sidelining the USPS’s centralized imaging system in previous election cycles. This last-minute directive fundamentally alters an established audit trail, appearing unprecedented and raising serious concerns about motives and consequences. The impact of this cannot be overstated: without centralized imaging, we lose the ability to confirm whether the number of ballots delivered corresponds to the number counted. Essentially, a crucial auditing mechanism has been deliberately disabled. The USPS will no longer be able to confirm the volume of mail-in ballots sent to election officials, nor will there be a way to ensure that fraudulent ballots are not introduced into the system or legitimate ballots excluded.

This decision did not emerge in a vacuum. The USPS itself is a highly unionized institution—with over 92% of its workers belonging to a union, the vast majority of whom are registered Democrats. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data, 90% of postal workers’ political contributions go to Democrat candidates, further underscoring the partisan leanings within the institution. The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), led by President Brian Renfroe, and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), led by President Mark Dimondstein, along with other unions, have thrown their weight behind the Democrat Party, specifically endorsing Kamala Harris for President. This endorsement is not merely a statement of preference; it carries a much darker undertone. Union leaders, including Mark Dimondstein and Brian Renfroe, have explicitly communicated to their members that former President Donald Trump would dismantle the postal service, end democracy, and transform America into a fascist state. Such rhetoric raises a critical concern: How can we trust postal workers who have been conditioned to believe that one candidate threatens their livelihood and their country?

This is not about whether the unions’ political leanings are right or wrong. It’s about the potential for a conflict of interest so glaring that it risks compromising the integrity of our elections. When an organization that processes nearly half of all presidential ballots—approximately 65 million ballots nationally, accounting for nearly 46% of all votes—is not only politicized but actively working to influence the outcome of an election, alarm bells should be ringing for everyone, regardless of political persuasion. Moreover, certain states, such as Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah and Hawaii, conduct their elections almost entirely by mail, with over 90% of ballots being delivered and returned by the USPS. In these states, the influence of USPS is even more pronounced, making transparency and impartiality all the more critical. Imagine being a postal worker convinced by union leaders that President Trump is akin to a fascist dictator-in-waiting. What steps might you take? Would you quietly dispose of ballots from neighborhoods filled with Trump signs? Would you hesitate to deliver ballots to certain districts perceived as leaning conservative? Given that prosecutions in recent years have demonstrated that individual postal workers have indeed thrown away ballots, these concerns are not merely hypothetical—they are grounded in reality. These examples illustrate the potential for abuse and underscore the importance of accountability.

Just last month, reports surfaced of entire bundles of mail-in ballots discarded before reaching voters in crucial swing districts. This follows previous incidents where ballots were discovered in dumpsters, or delayed until they were no longer valid. For example, in 2020, postal worker Nicholas Beauchene of New Jersey was charged with delay of mail and obstruction of mail after discarding 99 ballots in dumpsters. Similarly, Thomas Cooper, a postal worker in West Virginia, was charged with attempted election fraud for altering ballot requests. Another case involved Michael Delacruz, a mail carrier from Pennsylvania, who faced charges for dumping mail, including ballots, in 2021. Such incidents have a direct impact on the fundamental right to vote. And yet, here we are, with a new directive that effectively disables the very mechanism that would allow us to identify such incidents in real time. Informed Delivery, a service that allowed voters to see scanned images of their ballots, provided a layer of confidence to voters by showing that their ballots were indeed in the mail. With 64.9 million active users, this service was a critical tool for voters to track their ballots. With this service now unable to provide images of ballots due to the bypass of centralized scanning, voters are left in the dark, unable to confirm if their ballot has even entered the system.

This culminates in a troubling reality: we are expected to accept, on faith alone, that everything will work out. But faith is not a foundation for democracy—verification is. Public confidence in our elections depends on robust systems that are transparent and auditable. By removing centralized imaging and routing ballots outside of the normal chain of custody, the USPS, under the Biden-Harris regime, has chosen opacity over transparency. This is not merely a bureaucratic choice; it is a political one with serious implications for the legitimacy of our elections.

The endorsement of Kamala Harris by postal unions, and the inflammatory rhetoric used by union leadership against President Trump, have not occurred in isolation. These actions paint a disturbing picture when combined with a directive that decreases transparency in handling ballots. This is not how public trust is built—it is how it is dismantled. For democracy to function, it is vital that voters have confidence not only in the fairness of the election but in the institutions tasked with safeguarding that fairness. When federal workers are openly partisan, and when the systems designed to ensure accountability are dismantled, public confidence erodes, and the specter of illegitimacy looms.

The Biden-Harris regime must be held accountable for these decisions. The American people deserve an electoral system that is both secure and visibly transparent—a system where transparency is prioritized over partisan interests. The decision to prevent the imaging of ballots undermines this transparency. The endorsement by postal unions undermines public confidence. These are not isolated incidents; they are deliberate choices made by those in power, and they have consequences.

We must remember that the integrity of our elections depends not only on preventing fraud but also on ensuring that every step of the process is open to scrutiny. By sidelining established verification procedures, the USPS is removing that scrutiny. The Biden-Harris administration has decided that political gain outweighs public trust, which ultimately poses the greatest danger. We can and must do better. The American people deserve nothing less.

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