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Inside Politics

USPS Whistleblower Raises "Grave Concerns" About New Ballot System; Sen. Blumenthal: I Won't Trust Mail Voting If Trump Rules Take Effect; Massachusetts Democrats Re-Nominate Older Lawmakers; Eight House Dems Vote With GOP To Condemn Dem Socialism; Jeffries Fumes Over "Breach Of Trust" After Two Dems Help GOP. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 02, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: New mail ballot rules, an impossible timeline, millions of votes at stake.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We are 48 hours away from the first state mailing out the first ballots of the midterm election. And President Trump is still trying to radically reshape how the rules are and how they work, even whether those votes could be counted with mail-in ballots. So far, the changes he wants have been blocked by the courts. But today, in new, really important CNN reporting, multiple election officials across the country say that there's no way to make his mail ballot rules a reality, no matter what the courts ultimately say.

Washington state official says, quote, it's just not possible. There's not enough time to redesign and print the millions of envelopes the rule requires, and there may not even be, get this, enough paper to actually print them. If these rules take effect, the Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots that don't meet these new requirements the president wants, potentially leaving countless American voters out in the cold.

I'm going to get straight to CNN's Gabe Cohen. OK, so Gabe, there's a lot of possible issues with the proposed new mail ballot rules. What is CNN hearing from these local officials about all this?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, the underlying message is that it's going to be nearly impossible to implement all of these rules ahead of the midterms. There are a range of issues. You touched on a couple of the big ones. There is not enough time, they say, to redesign and print millions of envelopes, and that in some cases vendors may not actually have enough paper stockpiled in certain places to get that printing done.

And that printing all of those ballots would cost these local jurisdictions millions and millions of dollars that they have not budgeted for. And then there is the issue of training thousands of election officials across the country on this new postal service mail ballot portal to make sure that there are no administrative errors that those election officials might make that could lead to huge batches of ballots being rejected and returned to election offices across the country.

Remember, this is coming on the heels of that stunning Postal Service whistleblower account that we reported on yesterday. That whistleblower saying that USPS has really secretly and haphazardly rushed to build that portal, that it has not been properly tested and that it could face significant errors.

And one of the issues that they pointed out is this zero percent failure policy, where a single discrepancy with one ballot could mean that a large batch, potentially thousands of ballots that have been dropped off at once are immediately rejected and sent back, and that obviously could delay those ballots going out to voters and it could mean ultimately that people get disenfranchised.

BASH: And we're backing into this a little bit. We have known, and we've been reporting on the changes that the president wants. But now, please go through what those rules are and what states and postal -- the Postal Service would be required to do if the president gets his way.

COHEN: Yeah. And Dana, I do want to stress off the top that a federal judge has blocked these -- the Postal Service from actually mandating these rules. So as of now, it is still the status quo, and we're expecting this could go back up to the Supreme Court.

But if we are looking at what the rules actually tell these states they need to do, they say that states need to issue these standardized ballots with unique barcodes that obviously include the names and addresses of the voters that they are going to go out to. As well election officials are going to need to upload those names and addresses of every mail ballot recipient into a government portal. That portal ultimately may end up getting shared with other federal agencies or federal law enforcement, used for audits, investigations.

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But the key here is that the Postal Service has said there is no wiggle room. They are not going to deliver ballots in states that refuse to comply and refuse to upload all of that information. And that any ballots that have discrepancies that are not properly uploaded, where the name and address do not match the barcode, if there is any issue, they are going to get rejected and they are going to get sent back.

BASH: OK, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And Tierney Sneed also for doing this excellent reporting as well. I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters on this Wednesday. David Chalian, our political director. I mean, so much to talk about here. But one of my biggest takeaways is just the, what, that there might not even be enough paper to be doing this reprinting this on.

DAVID CHALIAN, POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah. So, the two things that Gabe just went through that I think are important here. Obviously, there's ongoing litigation --

BASH: Court battles, yeah.

CHALIAN: -- right, so like. This is not a settled thing yet, and so that is going -- the ongoing nature of the legal battles is going to create even more confusion, no doubt, right, for the election administrators who need to comply with the rules. Is it in effect? Is it not? What you know, all of that. But then there's also just the reality of what is accomplishable, and I would imagine that too is going to be part of court battles, right?

When it says, the USPS is not going to send ballots unless all of this is done. Well, that seems like open to an argument in court from a jurisdiction saying, we can't physically accomplish this. And so, I do think that we have a lot more questions about this than we have answers, and we only have, I don't know, 62 days or something until all the votes have to be counted.

And so that time schedule suggests to me, given how decentralized our system is that these localities, these states that are really responsible for the administration of elections are the ones that are going to determine whether or not they can actually follow through with this and that is going to be at the end of the day which votes get counted.

BASH: Yeah, well. And that's really part of the trouble here, the which votes get counted. And our colleague Kate Bolduan talked to Senator Richard Blumenthal this morning. He is a Democrat from Connecticut and was involved in gathering the information from the Postal Service whistleblower. But what he said this morning, his concern about mail-in voting for the reason you just described was really remarkable. Let's watch.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR, CNN NEWS CENTRAL: You're not going to test mail-in voting if the Supreme Court allows us to go through, though, are you?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I won't, personally, and I think most Americans will view mail voting as lacking credibility because, remember, the United States Postal Service is going to be screening your ballot and sending them back if it finds a single discrepancy, and you may not know that your ballot has been sent back to state election officials. They may not be able to comply in time and there are strict deadlines for submitting mail ballots.

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BASH: Sabrina?

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: This is the first thing I was thinking of -- just hearing all about this is how voters are going to feel about all of this. And for the average American who has not even tuned in yet to the midterms, who will be tuning in in the weeks to come as they see more ads bombarding them and are weighing whether they're even going to turn out to vote, this just shows confusion.

This just raises questions, am I getting my ballot? Wait, I just realized I never did receive my ballot. There will be so many questions around this, and ultimately, if this goes through or some version of this is implemented, for some folks, this does just raise questions about election integrity, which is interesting given that the president has focused so much on him saying that he wants it to be transparent and he wants to make sure that it's a secure election. But really, ultimately, doing this two months out from the election could just raise more questions and concerns than actually making people feel secured.

BASH: Let's look at what we're talking about, kind of the universe of people who actually use mail-in ballots. This is just kind of big picture. Starting back in 2018, it was 23.1 percent. 2020, a presidential year, it was much higher 43 percent, 2022 -- 2020 was obviously also COVID, which is why that was so high. 2022, 31.8 percent, that was a midterm year, and then back to a presidential year, 29 percent.

Now let's look, Alayna, at the states that are up for grabs, particularly in key Senate races. You see, sort of going down the list from Alaska all the way to Texas, it is a lot of voters who have historically used mail-in ballots to have their voices heard and to be able to participate. I mean, Michigan alone is over 2 million, or it was in 2024. Again, that was an election year. Ohio is a million. I mean, those are kind of two of the highest. And so, we're talking about a fair -- a pretty big percentage of the electorate that is going determine the outcome of the Senate race of the balance of power in the Senate.

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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, I mean millions of voters who vote by mail. And look, I mean, the problem with this, and you've all brought it up, Dave and Sabrina, and of course you too, Dana, is the timing of this is what really is the issue. I thought this whistleblower report was fascinating to read through. I mean, the things that they were describing. Another thing they had brought up is this isn't even tested. We won't even have time to test it for kinks and make sure it works before we're starting to send out these ballots.

The concern in there, I think too, we don't know what's going to happen with this. If -- I mean, it's still tied up as David to your point in the -- in the courts and the legal system. But even if it's not something that happens for these midterm elections in 62 days still could be something that they try to do in 2028. So, the stakes are still very high, even if they're not implemented for the midterms.

The other thing I'd point out is this is kind of what the president wanted when he issued this order back in the spring. He does not trust mail-in voting. He's often said falsely that it's rife with widespread fraud. I should note, even though he's voted by mail a couple times this year, trust it for him. But -- and it's something that he wants to do away with. Part of that, of course, I would notice the politics of this is Democrats typically, and particularly Democratic states are the ones who vote by mail more often.

BASH: That's true. Although, I spoke to the secretary of state in Nevada yesterday, who was saying that in some of the rural counties that tend to be more red, they have like 90 percent mail-in voting. And he says I'm guessing that they are voting Republican. OK. Everybody, stand by, when we come back. What an 80-year-old's win can tell us about the progressives' appeal with working-class voters. Plus, a new political ad in Texas features an emotional conversation about motherhood and forgoing an abortion and it's by a Democrat. We'll show you.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you think of Moulton's arguments that it's time for generational change?

MICHAEL GRUNKO, MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATIC VOTER: He's right, but he's just not the one.

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BASH: Remember, we heard that voter on this program yesterday. Thanks to our Arlette Saenz. Well, it turns out he may have captured in one sentence pretty much what happened in the Massachusetts Senate Democratic primary. 80-year-old Senate Democratic Senator Ed Markey easily crushed a primary challenge from 47-year-old Congressman Seth Moulton, who campaigned on the need for new leaders. Markey touted his 30-point margin as evidence that his ideas matter more than his advanced age.

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SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Generational change isn't about compromising to do the small things better. It's about fighting to do the big things best.

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BASH: Moulton wasn't the only candidate who ran and lost on generational change yesterday in Massachusetts. Three incumbents, ages 80, 71, and 77, defeated younger challengers. But Moulton argued, their races pushed the conversation forward.

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REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): I am confident that because of this campaign others will be inspired to buck the system when they're told to wait their turn.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Sabrina, will they? Was that the message? Or will it be -- if you try to buck the system and don't wait your turn, you're going to lose by 30 points.

RODRIGUEZ: I mean, I think the primaries this year, if you could pinpoint different states and we have different signals coming out of each one at the end of the day. I think that we'll leave here with Democrats still in a messy civil war over which direction to take the party. I think what Senator Markey's win though shows us though is not as simple as this is just an anti-incumbent election, or it's not as simple as this is just an antiestablishment, or oh, there's old politicians and we need to get them out.

It also has to do with the substance and whether people perceive you to be fighting for the ideas, fighting for the policies that they want. And that's where Senator Markey succeeded and showed it's not just about age here. It also gets into do people like you? Do people think you've delivered for them? And I think you see the same thing with Congressman Lynch and with Richard Neal in in Massachusetts. People perceive them to be delivering or fighting for them, and that was part of why they were able to effectively fight off these younger, more progressive challengers.

BASH: Yeah. No, that's such an important point. And one of the things that we have seen throughout these Democratic primaries in various parts of the country is split within the Democratic electorate based on -- based on age, based on wealth, based on education, and our team broke down some areas in Massachusetts that maybe are telling at least about this particular Senate race.

So, David Chalian in Brockton, Massachusetts, Ed Markey won by 56 percent. The median income there is 80,000. Fall River up by 30 points. Median income is 56,000. Now let's look at Marblehead Mass, very wealthy. Moulton won by 21 percentage points -- 21 points rather. Median income 182,000. And Wellesley, really wealthy, Moulton won by five. Median income is 250,000.

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CHALIAN: So, I guess the takeaway is as goes Brockton, so goes the state. You know, I think when you win two to one, you know, in a primary, what that is it doesn't just break in specific areas. Yes, those are some areas where Moulton was able to put together some kind of a coalition.

But Markey's coalition, to your point, it wasn't just the progressives who were with him on his policy stances, or you know, he had the validators of Bernie Sanders and AOC and Elizabeth Warren or what have you, which all have sort of slightly different slices of the progressive movement, right? Stitched together as validators for him. But it was also like, his coalition was broader than just the progressives inside the Democratic Party, obviously, and he was able to bring in some of the working class and some.

And so, there was just sort of no corner when you looked at the results come in last night for Moulton to sort of stake a ground that says, oh my, you know, this is not the Michigan primary that we saw, which was decided by 1 percent, and you could see the real divide in the party. This was Ed Markey sort of getting a stamp of approval from a large swath of Massachusetts Democrats.

BASH: Right. I mean, and just to boil it all down, Ed Markey is still an incredibly popular senator --

CHALIAN: Exactly.

BASH: -- who is clearly beloved by Democrats in his home state, despite his age and all of the headwinds that could have potentially been against him for that reason. I quickly want to talk about a related issue and a related event that happened yesterday in the House of Representatives, the Republicans put on the floor a resolution condemning socialism. It said, condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic socialists of America. It also called for the enactment of the Save America Act to ensure election security.

OK. So, that second part could be perhaps why eight Democrats voted for the Republican and not more, the Republican resolution, but still eight Democrats voted for this resolution. And we have them listed here. Most, if not all of them, well, Jared Golden is retiring, are from swing districts where, you know, they have to try to compete for Independent and Republican votes.

Hillary Scholten, Jared Moskowitz, Tom Suozzi, Josh Gottheimer wanted to take that election piece out and suggested that they might have voted for this resolution against socialism had they -- had that been not part of it.

TREENE: Right, exactly. I mean, I think this is reflective of, and I should know, Jared Golden. I think he gave up an excuse about, you know, one of his bills and a messaging bill for about Maine lobster and whatnot. But all to say, this is speaking to the broader trend that we are really seeing happening within the Democratic Party. You called it a civil war. I don't know if it's quite there yet, but between the more establishment wing of the Democratic Party and then the rising socialist -- Democratic socialist for America, the more progressive wing of the party.

And I think, you know, obviously I think the politics of this, these different members being part of red states, they're trying to send a message back home to their constituents. But it is something we are seeing, and it reminds me of what we heard Senator Bernie Sanders say the other day that he believes some Democrats actually don't want, you know, the more democratic socialist people like in Michigan, like El- Sayed, to win. I don't know if that's necessarily the case, but I think that was a message that they were trying to signal again, very specific though to their own states.

BASH: We have a related story, coming up. Two House Democrats made a lot of enemies in their own caucus. And a phrase says the party was blindsided. But did he just get a preview of life with the gavel and a new caucus? Stay with us.

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BASH: House Democrats are furious. I know, not exactly a rarity, but this time the fight is inside their own caucus, and here's why. Republicans were staring down a humiliating defeat that could have sent the House home for weeks. Then two Democrats stepped in and threw the Republicans a lifeline. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says the party feels blindsided and he's threatening repercussions.

CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill to give us all of the inside scoop on the drama. What happened?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was actually a meeting this morning, Dana, for the Democratic caucus to have a discussion about what needed to happen with these members because there is so much frustration. There is this sense that they need to be united, especially at this moment before they go into the midterms' elections. Take a listen to what a couple of Democrats said coming out of that meeting.

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REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): I made a mistake to vote against my caucus. We have to be unified. That's what we're going to be fighting for in this election cycle as we move into the majority. So that's why we're having a healthy conversation.

REP. DON BEYER (D-VA): And we still have to do our very best to maintain the cohesion as a family. Anytime you start punishing members of the family, you can force them out too, which we don't want to do.

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FOX: And I just want to underscore here, Dana, that the underlying issue isn't that these members voted their conscience on a bill, but that these members voted with Republican on a procedural vote, and typically that is left up to the majority party. That is where the frustration is coming from, and they are really weighing right now whether or not there should be repercussions.

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