USPS says mail ballot portal may launch next week after DOJ fumbles questions in court

Hours after Trump’s Department of Justice struggled to tell a federal judge whether the administration’s new mail ballot portal was ready to launch, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) disclosed Thursday that the system is still being refined and will not be available to election officials until sometime next week.

During a hearing in Boston, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani repeatedly pressed Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney Michael Velchik about the Federal Ballot Mail Portal, the new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) system states would use to submit voter information and comply with the agency’s mail ballot requirements.

“What does the certification of the portal say?” Talwani asked. When Velchik said he did not have the information in front of him and referred Talwani to the final rule, the judge pushed back that the rule did not answer her question.

Talwani then asked a more basic question: If she lifted the current restraining order, would the portal be ready to go live?

Velchik said he could not make “specific representations” and again referred to the existing record.

“Is it ready to go or not?” Talwani asked.

Velchik again pointed her to the government’s brief.

At that, Talwani leaned back in her chair and said “ok,” spurring laughter from the courtroom audience.

“We’ve been here for a week and you can’t tell me the government is ready to go?” Talwani said.

The exchange came during a pivotal hearing over whether Talwani should issue a preliminary injunction blocking USPS’ new mail voting rule, which requires election officials to submit voter information and comply with new ballot-envelope and barcode requirements before the agency will accept certain mail ballots.

Earlier in the hearing, Talwani also pressed lawyers on basic questions about how states would upload voter names, addresses and barcodes to the portal.

“But we are here 60 days before the election,” she said. “I have nothing from USPS on how this will happen.”

Talwani gave DOJ until 3 p.m. Thursday to supplement the record with details about what is actually ready to launch, what election officials would have to certify and other implementation specifics.

If the government could not provide those details, she said, she would assume the system was “not finalized yet.”

The questions about the portal come days after a USPS whistleblower warned that the agency’s implementation effort has been “rushed,” “slapdash” and “haphazard,” with new systems being built on an unusually compressed timeline. The whistleblower also warned that the portal could face serious operating problems that disrupt ballot delivery.

This story has been updated.