There’s still time to return your ballot for the 2026 general election, but if you’re planning to vote by mail, you may want to hurry. That’s according to a research brief posted Oct. 21 by a team led by the University of Washington, which found that ongoing changes to U.S. Postal Service mail processes could double the percentage of ballots that arrive too late to be counted.
Researchers estimate the mail delays could cause tens of thousands of otherwise valid ballots to be rejected. These mail delays disproportionately affect rural voters and those in outlying suburban communities.
“This could affect 20,000 or more voters who put their ballots in the mail ahead of Election Day,” said research lead Scott W. Allard, professor of public policy and governance at the UW. “That may sound like a small number of voters in the grand scheme of things, but it could be really consequential, particularly in rural and outer suburban communities.”
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