A Little-Noticed Postal Service Change Could Upend the 2026 Midterms

A change by the U.S. Postal Service could make it harder for voters to return mail-in ballots on time, potentially invalidating ballots in races critical to who controls Congress next year.

In recent months, the postal service has cut back the number of mail pickups from post offices. That means that rural regions more than 50 miles away from regional processing centers now have one pickup a day, as opposed to two. That change means votes across fourteen states, Guam, Puerto Rico, D.C. and the Virgin Islands could no longer be counted if they’re postmarked after Election Day, even if they were mailed that afternoon. And in states with mail-in voting options — including Texas, Nevada and Virginia — the change could play a critical role in the upcoming midterm elections.

“In the voting context, to make this change a few months before a midterm election, and actually very shortly before some of the primary elections for those midterms, is a very curious decision considering the president’s assault on free and fair elections in other contexts,” said Dan Vicuña, senior policy director for voting and fair representation at Common Cause.

Rural, elderly, out-of-state voters and voters with disabilities are among those most likely to be affected by reduced pickups, and often voted by mail in the 2024 election.

“It’s our job to push this administration to not forget rural voters, to not forget our senior voters. I think about people that might have to drive up to 50 miles to get to a postal post office box or post office building — they don’t have the ability,” Illinois Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat and the co-founder of the Congressional Postal Service Caucus, told NOTUS.

The change is part of the Postal Service “Regional Transportation Optimization” initiative, which is aimed at reducing costs and “improving operational efficiency.” As part of the overhaul, the Postal Service reduced the daily trips it makes to pick up mail from post offices more than 50 miles from regional processing and distribution centers, which is where many postmarks are administered.

The Postal Service told NOTUS in an email that its RTO effort “is based upon a standard rule that applies equally to customers throughout all delivery areas — urban and rural. The majority of mail and package volume, including volume destined to rural communities, originates in ZIP codes within 50 miles of an RPDC. This means that mail and package volume will be processed more quickly, since our operating schedules no longer need to wait for volume to arrive from outlying areas.”

“If voters follow our long-standing recommendations, there should be no concern. For domestic, nonmilitary voters who choose to use the mail to return a completed ballot, our general recommendation is that, as a common-sense measure, they should mail their completed ballot before Election Day, and at least one week before the deadline by which their completed ballot must be received by their local election official,” Cathy K. Purcell, a spokesperson for the USPS, said in the email.

But some rural voter advocates say that when it comes to making sure votes are not only mailed, but postmarked and counted, it’s not going to be that simple. The new policy, they say, could end up disenfranchising thousands.

“This rule is going to make a lot of people not have their ballot counted, and that’s really unfair,” Michael Chameides, policy director for the Rural Democracy Initiative, told NOTUS.

“I want them to feel confident that their vote is going to be counted and they shouldn’t be burdened with understanding the complexity of the post office in order to figure out how to make sure that they’re getting their ballot in on time,” Chameides said.

The Postal Service has said customers can still walk into the post office and request postmarks there. But some advocates and state officials have pointed out that for many voters, that might not be an accessible option.

“Working people don’t have that time, and seniors might not have that ability,” said Budzinski, whose district has a significant rural population.

Donald Kersey, chief of staff for the West Virginia secretary of state, made a similar point. Elderly or out-of-state voters “might not have that luxury” of being able to go to a post office to ask for a postmark, he told NOTUS.

“So even though they may be eligible to vote absentee in West Virginia, they may rely on their delivery person to pick that ballot up the day before the election, in their mailbox from their house, or even on Election Day, and hope that they’re good to go, and that may not be the case any longer,” he said. “So our secretary of state’s office has to make sure that we’re educating the public — we’re doing that now.”

For Tom Lopach, the CEO of the Voter Participation Center and the Center for Voter Information, the changes at USPS are part of broader policy moves making it more difficult to vote.

“In practice, mail was postmarked on date of receipt, and when you slow that down by half or even slow it down by a day, in an environment where legislatures and state governments are tightening the dates around voting activities, an end result will be that eligible Americans will not have their votes counted,” Lopach told NOTUS.

And more upheaval could be coming: The Supreme Court is set to decide this term on the legality of periods that allow for votes to be counted if they are received after Election Day if they have an Election Day postmark.

The case stems from Mississippi’s mail-in ballot law, which was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The law allows ballots to be received and counted by poll workers up to five days after the election, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. In the lawsuit, the Republican National Committee argues that states like Mississippi do not have the right to set voting deadlines.

The court ruling will have an outsized impact on the eight states with all-mail elections, meaning that all registered voters are sent a ballot in the mail they can use to vote.

California, one of the states with all-mail elections, urged voters to return ballots early in last November’s elections, following the USPS changes. The office of the California secretary of state told NOTUS that ahead of future elections, they hoped voters would also take advantage of other avenues for voting.

“Our office will continue to inform voters they have options for voting, including returning their completed and signed vote-by-mail ballots by dropping them off at a secure designated drop box, polling location, vote center, or county elections office, or casting their vote in person,” the office said over email. “We will amplify messaging to voters who plan to submit their completed and signed vote-by-mail ballots through the United States Postal Service to help them understand they need to submit their vote-by-mail ballot early if returning it through the Postal Service.”

In Massachusetts, voters can request mail-in ballots using a vote-by-mail application. Debra O’Malley, the spokesperson for the Massachusetts secretary of state, told NOTUS that the USPS changes concern her the most for out-of-state and rural voters, and communities with more elderly voters.

“We have kind of built in some wiggle room, because we understand that the post office is not perfect, and certainly has been slower in more recent years,” O’Malley said. “So the post office recommends mailing your ballot at least a week before the deadline. We recommend mailing your ballot at least a week before Election Day.”