AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A whistleblower report warns that the U.S. Postal Service is rushing out a new online system that could derail the midterm election. That system is part of a plan for President Trump's attempt to restrict mail-in voting, and key parts of that plan remain blocked, at least for now, by a court order. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang has been tracking all of this and joins us now. Hi, Hansi.
CHANG: Hey. OK, so this online system - it's the result of an executive order that Trump signed back in March, right? Can you just remind us what that order tells the Postal Service to do?
WANG: President Trump's order basically called for the Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots only to people on lists of absentee voters that states would have to turn over to USPS. And this new whistleblower report is focused on an online portal that's supposed to allow state election officials to submit voter names. The plan is that, you know, all that information in the portal has to match what's on the envelopes for the ballots state election officials want to send out. Otherwise, the Postal Service says it will not deliver them. And I should note, USPS is a financial support of NPR.
CHANG: Correct. And what are the whistleblowers' concerns exactly about this online portal?
WANG: The concern here is this system is not ready for primetime. And if the courts allow USPS to require states to use it, there may be a lot of eligible absentee voters who may not get their ballots in time for the...
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