Mailing a mail-in ballot close to Election Day now carries an additional risk for many voters: getting a vote rejected due to a late postmark. Mailing system changes rolled out by the U.S. Postal Service have altered how and when envelopes are stamped, prompting some election officials to urge voters to consider returning their ballots at their local election office or any available drop boxes instead.
Why Mailing System Changes Create Postmark Delays
The risks stem from mailing system changes that began last year. Since April 2025, USPS has been rolling out cuts to daily mail pick-ups and processing changes at certain post offices, especially in rural areas. What USPS calls its “Regional Transportation Optimization” effort is part of a 10-year reorganization plan the agency began in 2021 to try to stabilize its finances.
As a result, USPS may not automatically stamp a date on an envelope the same day it’s collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a post office or a big blue collection box.
What Extraordinary Measures Are Being Implemented
As part of its “extraordinary measures” for these midterms, USPS has instructed post offices affected by RTO to separate returned ballots from other mail starting Oct. 26 so that managers can manually add postmarks the day the ballots are collected.
Starting Oct. 24, 10 days before Election Day, some post offices may extend their opening and closing times by a half-hour and set up lines or drive-through lanes just for voters who want to get a manual postmark for their mail-in ballot. And starting Oct. 26, USPS says it plans to speed up delivery of ballots. Asked why it is not starting extraordinary measures 15 days before Election Day, as it did for the 2024 and 2022 elections, USPS said in a statement: “The time period for extraordinary measures is carefully considered in advance of each General Election, and it is based on a number of internal factors. The Postal Service has successfully delivered America’s election mail for more than 150 years, and we are confident that we will do so again this year.”
How Vulnerable Communities and Voters Are Affected
For the general election, an additional 43,000 to 55,000 ballots around the country could be rejected for arriving late because of the RTO effort, according to a new analysis by Elena Patel, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Patel produced the estimates before USPS announced its final extraordinary measures policy. Patel notes that it is not clear how post offices will carry out these directives for the first time, particularly in places where staffing may be stretched.
“These are some of the realities of running a very large postal network on tight finances,” says Patel, who once worked as an economist at the Postal Regulatory Commission.
No post offices in the state are affected by the RTO effort, but Michelle Sparck, director of Get Out the Native Vote, says she has come across many absentee voters in Alaska Native villages who had their ballots rejected. Sparck is encouraging eligible voters to make a plan to be an October voter and not wait until November’s Election Day if they can. “If there is an early voting opportunity in a community,” Sparck says, “we’re asking people to drop their ballots off with those folks so that it becomes part of the chain of custody.”
What Voters Can Do to Protect Their Ballots
And in states with a grace period for receiving late-arriving mail ballots, USPS recommends stopping by a post office to ask for a manual postmark to make sure a ballot gets postmarked on the same day it’s mailed.
