Senators and election officials had warned USPS changes could delay ballot postmarks
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said Tuesday that “more Oregonians had their voices go unheard just because their ballots couldn’t make it through the mail in time,” as newly released data showed mail ballots rejected for late postmarks have surged in Oregon and Washington ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.
The rejections come as the Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling blocking an executive order restricting mail-in voting, a method used by nearly one-third of U.S. voters and the only voting option in Washington and Oregon.
The Postal Service has been consolidating its operations around regional hubs in an effort to save billions of dollars. Some U.S. senators and election officials have been warning for months that the changes could delay the application of postmarks to ballots — even when mailed on or before Election Day — preventing otherwise valid votes from counting.
That prediction is now being borne out, they say, with thousands of voters having their ballots rejected during this year’s primaries. Read, referring to Oregon’s May primary, added: “That is unacceptable.”
The Postal Service changes are compounding broader worries about the future of voting by mail, particularly in Western states where the method is universal and widely popular. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed mail-in voting is riddled with fraud; he has voted by mail himself.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a judge’s ruling blocking an executive order that seeks to restrict mail-in voting.