Ballot Mail for Federal Elections

On March 31, 2026, the President issued Executive Order 14399, Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections, 91 FR 17125 (2026) (“Executive Order” or “Order”). The Executive Order stresses the federal government's “unavoidable duty under Article II of the Constitution of the United States to enforce [f]ederal law, which includes preventing violations of [f]ederal criminal law and maintaining public confidence in election outcomes.” Id. To these ends, the Order points out the need for additional measures concerning the use of the mail in order to facilitate enforcement of federal law, reduce the risk of fraud, and help protect the integrity of federal elections. Id. Following the issuance of the Order, the Postal Service engaged in an interagency review process through the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”), and subsequently issued a proposed rule regarding the preparation of ballot mail for federal elections to facilitate the enforcement of federal law and to implement best practices for Postal Service operations regarding ballot mail. Ballot Mail for Federal Elections, 91 FR 32915 (June 2, 2026).

Although exempt by 39 U.S.C. 410(a) from the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) (5 U.S.C. 553) regarding proposed rulemaking, the Postal Service invited public comment on the proposed revisions to Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (“DMM”), incorporated by reference in the Code of Federal Regulations, set forth in the proposed rule. The comment period closed on July 2, 2026.

To ensure the faithful execution of federal law in connection with federal elections, this rule has an immediate effective date. Delaying the effective date would jeopardize implementation of this rule in time for the 2026 general election, which will be held on November 3, 2026. Given injunctions currently in place in State of California v. Trump, No. 26-cv-11581 (D. Mass. June 25, 2026), and League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, No. 26-cv-11549 (D. Mass. Aug. 11, 2026), the Postal Service will not take actions to implement the rule specifically for the 2026 election unless and until the government obtains relief from those injunctions. If the government obtains timely relief from the injunctions, implementation immediately thereafter will provide election officials as much time as possible before the next election to comply with the rule's preparation standards for Federal Ballot Mail envelopes, and to prepare to submit data to the Federal Ballot Mail Portal (“Portal”), before the mail-in and absentee ballots subject to this rule aremailed (which generally occurs in September or thereafter, as determined by state law). The Portal will become active (along with the verification process that relies on Portal data) at the time of the publication of the system of records (“SOR”) governing the Portal. Publication of the SOR will occur on or after August 17, 2026 (pending the Postal Service's separate consideration of the comments on that SOR proposal). Finally, the terms “mail-in ballot” and “absentee ballot” are synonymous and interchangeable for the purposes of this rule. These terms include any ballot sent through the U.S. Mail, irrespective of state law terminology.