States that require mail ballots to be postmarked by Election Day use the postmark as the legal deadline. A postmark reflecting a processing center date rather than the actual mailing date could cause a legally submitted ballot to be rejected — an outcome election officials in California and Washington said they are already working to prevent.
Sixteen U.S. senators sent a letter Thursday to U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General David Steiner, warning that recent changes to USPS mail processing operations could cause mail-in ballots to receive postmarks that don’t reflect the day voters mailed them — potentially disenfranchising voters in states that use postmark dates to determine ballot eligibility. The group, made up of 15 Democrats and one independent who caucuses with the party, said the changes carry particular risk heading into a midterm election year in which control of Congress is at stake.
The central concern is a shift in how and where postmarks are applied. Updated USPS policy means postmarks may now reflect the date mail was handled at a regional processing center rather than the date a letter carrier picked it up or a voter dropped it at a retail location. As the agency has consolidated processing into fewer, more distant regional hubs, the gap between those two dates has grown.
“Postmark delays are especially problematic in states that vote entirely or largely by mail,” the senators wrote to Steiner. “These changes will only increase the likelihood of voter disenfranchisement.”
Rural voters face the sharpest exposure, the senators wrote. Mail from rural areas travels farther to reach regional processing facilities, creating longer delays between when a ballot is mailed and when it receives a postmark. “In theory, a rural voter could submit their ballot in time according to their state law, but due to the changes you are implementing, their legally-cast ballot would not be counted as it sits in a local post office,” they wrote.
The USPS disputed the senators’ characterization. Spokesperson Martha Johnson said the language in the agency’s final rule “does not change any existing postal operations or postmarking practices” and said the agency looked forward to “clarifying the senators’ misunderstanding.” The agency said its public filing was made to enhance understanding of what a postmark represents and when it is applied.
The USPS website, however, acknowledged that the divergence between mailing date and postmark date will become more common as the agency expands its regional-hub initiative. “This means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the customer’s mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a retail location,” the site states. As a workaround, the agency noted that anyone dropping off mail at a post office can request a free manual postmark, which will reflect the actual date of mailing.
The consolidation also eliminated twice-daily mail dispatches from local post offices to regional processing centers. Under the new schedule, mail received after the single daily transfer truck departs sits overnight before moving, the senators wrote — compounding the lag before a postmark is applied.
Election officials in heavily mail-based states expressed concern. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the changes undermine confidence in the state’s voting system. “Not being able to have faith that the Postal Service will mark ballots on the day they are submitted and mail them in a timely manner undermines vote-by-mail voting, in turn undermining California and other elections,” Weber said in a statement. Her office said it will amplify messaging urging voters who use the mail to return ballots early.
Washington state, where voting is conducted almost entirely by mail, issued guidance recommending that voters returning ballots within a week of Election Day use a drop box or voting center rather than the postal system. “Given the operational and logistical priorities recently set by the USPS, there is no guarantee that ballots returned via mail will be postmarked by the USPS the same day they are mailed,” the Washington secretary of state’s office said.
The senators urged Steiner to restore “timely postmarks” and fully establish an election mail task force. Signatories represent California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland. The Postal Service said it received the letter and would respond directly to those who signed it.