USPS publishes proposed rule requiring states to submit voter lists and unique barcodes on all mail ballot envelopes

The United States Postal Service published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on May 29, 2026 implementing Trump's Executive Order 14399, requiring state election officials to submit voter registration rolls to DHS and stamp each outgoing mail ballot envelope with a unique machine-readable barcode linked to the voter's identity. States that failed to comply would have their mail ballots treated as undeliverable. The USPS acknowledged in the rule's preamble that it had no independent legal authority to enforce voter eligibility.