USPS halts Trump mail-voting system work after Supreme Court blocks order

The Supreme Court this week blocked rules from President Donald Trump's executive order on mail-in voting. Postmaster General David Steiner told The Associated Press the U.S. Postal Service halted work on the related computer system once the injunction came down. "There's an injunction so we're not doing anything," Steiner said. He said mail-ballot processing has returned to business as usual for this election. Trump's order called for federal agencies to build state citizenship lists for a new USPS Federal Mail Ballot Portal, unique barcodes on outbound and return mail-ballot envelopes, and states to submit voters' names, addresses and barcodes. A whistleblower report earlier in September said the system would not be ready for the midterms and had technical problems. Steiner said he believed it would have been ready around Sept. 15, called the build a monumental task done fast, and said he was proud of the IT department. He offered no assessment of the ruling, unlike Trump, who was sharply critical and ridiculed some justices. Steiner said he does not decide which rules to accept and looked at the order from the execution side. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately that the administration could ultimately prevail if the legal fight returns to the court.