I told you this was a bigger story than they realized at first. Yesterday, the New York Times reported, “Postal Service Issues Proposal to Block Mail Ballots in States That Don’t Turn Over Data.” The story referred to a new rule proposed last week by the U.S. Postal Service (but only covered now, since Democrats have realized the risk) that would require states to provide lists of eligible voters, along with unique barcodes, so that mail-in ballots can be processed and delivered. To the Democrats, this is a completely crazy idea that will literally destroy democracy itself. And it’s fascist.

Specifically, Democrats and voting-rights NGOs claim the proposed rules are “clear evidence that the Trump administration is trying to unconstitutionally intrude on state-run elections.” Wait till you see how much sheer, unadulterated panic this created. Plus, it would be too hard —“expensive, cumbersome and chaotic to comply”— with only 150 days until the midterms.

For years, we have been told over and over that mail-in voting is the most secure, flawless, and utterly perfect system ever devised by mankind. It is so secure, in fact, that even questioning it makes you a dangerous conspiracy theorist, a threat to democracy, and probably someone who enjoys fish pizza. But the moment the federal government says, “Okay, great, let’s just add a little barcode and a checkoff list to make sure these highly secure ballots are going to actual, living, eligible voters,” the Democrats react as if someone just suggested replacing the Statue of Liberty with a giant gold-plated statue of Donald J. Trump.

Behold! A Democrat ticker-tape parade of doom: Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read thundered, “This would deny eligible people the right to vote. Full stop.” Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows bellowed that, if courts side with Trump, you will see a virtual elimination of mail-in voting.” (We can but dream.) California’s Deputy AG Michael Cohen told a federal court that “it’s just difficult to overstate the disruption that this will cause to election administration.” Senator Alex Padilla of California —who as a former secretary of state called questioning mail-in ballots “unconscionable”— warned that “tens of millions of eligible voters could be prevented from voting by mail.” And the National Association of Letter Carriers union president Brian Renfroe prophesied that Trump’s Postal Service will “completely refuse to deliver mail ballots or other election mail.”

Virtual elimination! Tens of millions disenfranchised! Total refusal! Dogs and cats, living together! I did not make any of this up. These are actual quotes from one hysterical article. There were more.

But the truly hilarious part was that the Times acknowledged the elephant in the room. The story claimed without citing evidence that “Republicans have been convinced by Mr. Trump’s unfounded claims that mail balloting is not reliable and invites fraud.” In other words, half of the country distrusts the mail-in ballot system and believes Democrat postmen might throw their untracked ballots away.

You would think that a political party claiming to care deeply about “our democracy” would be thrilled to implement a simple, technology-based tracking system that would provide a reassuring pressure valve for half of the country.

Amazon can tell you which front porch your salted peanut clusters were delivered to (along with a picture!), but a barcode on a ballot? Never.

If nothing else, better tracking would resolve the massive, festering trustproblem within our democratic institutions. But no. The prospect of actuallyverifying who gets a ballot has induced a level of unbridled hysteria on the left that is usually reserved for when a conservative tries to speak on an Ivy League campus.

The Times quoted a totally unbiased and neutral “former USPS Board of Governors Vice Chair” —the Times’s description— named Anton Hajjar, who told CNN, “If proper postage is paid on a mail piece, the USPS should deliver it. It’s that simple. The proposed rule says it’s not regulating elections— but that’s what, in effect, it’s doing.”

Anton Hajjar. “Former USPS official.” Sounds super authoritative and totally neutral, right? Just another concerned, non-partisan postal bureaucrat who merely wants to ensure that your notice of proposed property tax increase doesn’t arrive until weeks after the vote.

But, in typical Times fashion, that wasn’t exactly the whole truth.

A quick look at his actual background reveals that Hajjar (who, it turns out, spent his entire career as a far-left labor lawyer) is the former head counsel for the American Postal Workers Union— an AFL-CIO affiliate widely considered the most left-leaning of all postal unions. He was nominated to the USPS Board by Joe Biden (or the Autopen, we aren’t sure) specifically to be a pro-union, anti-conservative voice.

So, when the Times fronted Anton Hajjar, they weren’t quoting any old neutral “former official.” They were quoting a partisan, far-left-wing, TDS-afflicted labor lawyer. It’s exactly the same as quoting any other Democrat. But the Times didn’t mention that. They just presented him as a nonpartisan expert— classic corporate media sleight of hand.

🔥 But there was an inconvenient buried lede the Times tried to wave away. The article mentioned, practically in passing, that the USPS’s proposed new barcode and tracking system was considered “best practices for mail voting” by Tammy Patrick, the chief programs officer at Election Center, a non-profit that serves election officials across the country.

Tammy noted that some large counties in Arizona and Colorado are alreadyusing ballot envelopes with barcodes, designed exactly the same way as the USPS is now proposing. In other words, the “unprecedented, catastrophic, democracy-ending” technology the Democrats are screaming about is something that responsible election jurisdictions have been quietly using for years. The only thing unprecedented here is the Democrats’ reaction to being asked to do what good election administrators are already doing without, apparently, wrecking democracy.

Here’s the summary: The USPS just wants to use simple barcodes to track ballots against approved lists— which is already considered the best practice. Half of America distrusts the current system, and better tracking would go a long way toward fixing that. The Democrats, who insist the current system is perfectly secure and Must Not Be Interfered With,™ are screaming that tracking ballots will literally destroy democracy. And corporate media is platforming union lawyers disguised as “former officials” to tell you why you shouldn’t be allowed to know who is getting a ballot in the mail.

I can’t see the Supreme Court upholding a judicial injunction that would prevent this commonsense upgrade. So. I predict it will take effect, despite Democrat hysteria. And maybe even before the midterms.