The American Postal Workers Union is moving into the national fight over how Americans cast ballots by mail, with a new wave of television advertising that begins in Ohio before expanding to other states. The union said it will air a 30-second message promoting vote-by-mail that features voters describing why they choose mail ballots, including a busy farmer and a flight attendant.
The union’s ad campaign is sponsored by the American Postal Workers Union, which it describes as a 200,000-member organization. The spot ends with the line: “Vote by mail — keep it, protect it, expand it.” Union officials said the campaign announced Tuesday will begin airing this week in Ohio, where the union said the first mail ballots were cast in 1864 by Union soldiers during the Civil War.
The timing of the ad campaign comes amid President Donald Trump’s public criticism of mail voting and a broader, politically charged dispute over absentee-ballot rules. Trump’s latest election executive order is aimed at creating a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and barring postal workers from sending absentee ballots to people who are not on each state’s approved list. The executive order, according to the report, has prompted lawsuits and opposition from postal workers.
Postal workers’ groups said the role the order would assign to the U.S. Postal Service would improperly politicize the agency’s work. The National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association said USPS is “not equipped or authorized to decide who is or is not entitled to vote” and that assigning it such a role “risks politicizing one of the nation’s most trusted public institutions.” The union also said the approach threatens confidence in the mail and in elections.
Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers, said the union’s TV ad was produced before Trump’s executive order was issued and that it was not in direct response to it. Smith said the union wants to encourage people to continue voting by mail, but he raised concerns about the potential ramifications of requiring postal workers to determine who should receive an absentee ballot.
“It is our position that it is not the job of the postal workers to verify voter eligibility,” Smith said, adding: “It is our job to move mail from one destination to the next.” Smith also said the union does not want to be politicized, and he described the campaign as a direct message to voters rather than an effort to target the president.
The report said the executive order has been challenged in court by multiple groups, including Democrats in Washington who argue that the Constitution empowers states and Congress, not the president, to set election rules. The backdrop for the debate includes a statement that mail voting has existed for more than a century and had been increasing in popularity in Democratic- and Republican-led states until 2020, when Trump began targeting the method.
In a response tied to the advertising push, a White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, said Trump “will do everything in his power to defend the safety and security of American elections and to ensure that only American citizens are voting in them.” The report also noted that voting by noncitizens is rare, and that when it is caught it can be punishable as a potential felony and can carry the possibility of deportation. The U.S. Postal Service did not respond to a request for comment.
Smith said the union’s message is intended to be about mail voting’s practical outcomes, not about political conflict. “Our message is to America: Vote by mail is efficient, it’s safe, and it’s successful. Period,” he said. “This is educating the American people that you can use vote by mail and you can be guaranteed that your voice will be heard and your vote will be counted.”