New U.S. Postal Service rules on postmarks could have a significant impact on rural voters and mail-in ballot processing in Illinois and across the country.
Under the new system, mail will not receive a postmark on the day it is submitted to the local post office. Instead, the postmark will be applied only after the mail is transported to a separate regional processing facility, potentially resulting in postmarks dated one or more days after the actual submission date.
Michael Chameides, communications and policy director for the nonprofit Rural Democracy Initiative, said the changes will impact about 70% of ZIP codes nationwide.
“People in rural communities are going to be hit twice,” he said. “Our mail is going to take longer to get there. Then the documents that need a postmark are going to show the wrong date. And this is going to lead to a whole lot of people having their votes discounted, because of this policy choice.”
More than 1 million Illinois residents voted by mail in the 2024 presidential election. Chameides said people mailing time-sensitive documents should allow for extra delivery time or ask for a manual postmark or a certificate of mailing at the local post office.
