Traditionally, a postmark would provide evidence of timely mailing, and would be critical to ensuring mailed-in ballots are accepted by election officials. However, both voters and the agencies that oversee elections are concerned that ongoing Postal Service operational changes may eliminate postmarks or end their relevance to when a ballot was mailed.
For example, as reported September 26 by the Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review,
“The Spokane County Elections Office has recommended voters shouldn’t return their ballots via a mailbox any later than Oct. 31, a full four days before the election; the Washington Secretary of State’s Office goes even further, cautioning voters to not use a mailbox within seven to 10 days ahead of the election.
“Instead, voters should deposit ballots at a designated ballot drop box, which are managed by the county elections office, or have a ballot manually postmarked inside a post office, according to elections officials. …
“Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said she has never seen a similar breakdown in her nearly quarter-century managing the county’s elections. ‘In years past, our post offices here would put a great deal of effort on election night to get the mail collected and transferred so it could get postmarked as of election day. We have worked so hard to train our voters on how to submit their ballots, and we now need to rework everybody’s behavior.’
“In a podcast last week with The Spokesman-Review, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs estimated that 30-40% of mail-in ballots come in after 8pm on election day, which is the cutoff time for submitting ballots. …
“State law allows mail-in ballots to be received and still counted after election day, even if they arrive to election workers days later, but only if they are postmarked on Election Day or before.”
Popular suppositions over the universal imprinting of a postmark on retail mail (including ballots) failed to recognize the effect of gradual changes in USPS mail processing, including the consolidation of processing operations and facilities.
Regardless, any assumptions about the meaning of a postmark were disrupted when the USPS issued its proposed rule, Postmarks and Postal Possession, on August 12. In the document, the Postal Service was explicit in stating that “the postmark date does not necessarily indicate the first day that the Postal Service had possession of the mailpiece.” In effect, a ballot or any other time-sensitive mail, may be deposited at a post office or in a USPS collection box a day or more earlier than the postmark would suggest.
Further compounding the challenge to voters in most of America is implementation of the Regional Transportation Optimization initiative which eliminates afternoon collections, delaying processing (and postmarking) of deposited mail until at least the following business day.
As would be expected, a USPS spokesperson offered the cavalier canned response that the changes were “meant to improve service” and “achieve financial sustainability.” There was no comment about how voters should feel when their ballots are disqualified because of postal “efficiency.”