The Postal Service is implementing broad cost-saving measures that will slow pick-up and delivery times that now cover more than 42% of the contiguous United States.
That puts tens of thousands of unsuspecting mail voters at risk of disenfranchisement if they wait too long to drop their ballot in the mail. The danger is particularly great for rural voters.
The new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) policy, known as Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO), will eliminate evening mail pickups from post offices more than 50 miles away from a regional processing facility, most of which are located in major urban areas. The changes mean that mail from those post offices will be postmarked — officially stamped with that day’s date — and delivered at least one day later than before.
Election officials rely on postmarks to determine when voters mailed their ballots. In the 15 states with grace periods for ballots that were mailed by or on Election Day but arrive within a set number of days after, the postmark date often determines whether that vote gets counted.
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