A USPS audit found small but consequential ballot-handling failures just as Trump wants the agency to police mail-voter eligibility

The reassuring number is that USPS processed nearly 99% of tracked primary ballots “on time.” The audit’s details are less reassuring. At 22 of 73 delivery units inspected, election-mail training materials were missing. Management at 10 of 82 facilities did not understand correct postmark procedures. Clerks at five of nine processing facilities sometimes used incorrect dates; in Pennsylvania, 56 ballots received the wrong Election Day postmark. Another 108 ballots were accidentally mixed with ordinary mail and required an emergency transfer on election morning.

Normally these would be operational problems to fix. They matter more because the Supreme Court is considering whether USPS can implement Trump’s executive order requiring states to provide lists of eligible mail voters and the Postal Service itself to decide whether ballots should be sent. USPS officials and election administrators have warned that the new role has not been adequately tested.

An institution that performs ordinary ballot delivery very well may still be a poor place to suddenly add a politically sensitive voter-eligibility gate only weeks before the midterms.