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Election 2026
Cait Kelley and Lukas Levin

Minnesota Secretary of State warns USPS mail voting proposal would be 'a real mess'

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon addresses the media
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon addresses the media at the state Capitol the day before the 2026 primary election on Monday, Aug. 10.
Cait Kelley | MPR News

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Ongoing litigation involving Minnesota and many other states will determine if mail-voting procedures will change prior to the coming election.

DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon said a federal plan to restrict mail-in voting could disenfranchise voters and be costly for Minnesota. For now, the state’s mail-in voting procedures remain the same.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March directing the U.S. Postal Service to only send mail ballots to voters on citizenship lists created by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration. Federal officials argue a voter list would ensure only eligible voters get ballots.

However, a whistleblower came forward to allege the Postal Service is poised to launch a "rushed," "risky" and "haphazard" online portal that could reject batches of ballots if just one can't be verified.

Minnesota joined 23 other states to challenge the executive order and for now implementation of the USPS plan is paused.

Election 2026 Florida
An election worker places a vote-by-mail ballot into a secure bin at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office during the Florida primary election in Doral, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 18,
Lynne Sladky | AP

Simon spoke with MPR News’ Cathy Wurzer on Thursday about how the USPS proposal could affect Minnesota.

“For now, nothing has changed in Minnesota,” Simon said. “In Minnesota we have features in place, security features that almost no other state has,” including requiring voters to have a witness verify the ballot has been filled out legally.

However, if the pause on the federal plan is lifted, Simon said the USPS plan “will be a real mess.”

Simon said the plan requires local officials to individually scan ballots. In the 2024 general election, about 14 percent of Minnesotans voted by mail — or about 450,000 ballots.

"That's several thousand hours worth of work at the local level,” Simon said. “I don't know how that's practically ever going to work."

The first general election ballots will be mailed to Minnesota voters on Sept. 18.