Op-ed: How a Postal Rule Clarification Could Cost Votes

By Tom Lopach

On Christmas Eve, the U.S. Postal Service quietly clarified a rule that could determine whether your vote is counted.

For decades, the postmark, the official stamp showing when and where mail was processed, has been the gold standard for proving an absentee or mail-in ballot was submitted on time.

However, the Postal Service just clarified that since April, the number of mail truck visits to post offices far from Regional Processing and Distribution Centers has been cut in half, particularly affecting post offices in rural communities. This means your ballot might sit at the post office for days before it gets postmarked.

In the coming elections with strict postmark deadlines for voter ballots, that delay could be the difference between your vote counting and your voice being silenced.

I run a nonpartisan voter participation organization, and I’m alarmed. Not because of politics, but because of math.

The numbers tell a troubling story. According to the Brennan Center, state legislatures introduced 2,000 restrictive voting measures between 2021 and 2025, and 110 of those have become law. Just this year, six states passed seven new laws limiting mail-in voting. Ohio, Kansas, North Dakota and Utah have eliminated grace periods for mail-in ballot arrival entirely.

Tom Lopach is President and CEO of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Voter Participation Center (VPC) and the Center for Voter Information (CVI). VPC and CVI use data-driven methods of direct mail and digital engagement to register to vote and turn out to vote underrepresented voters, with the goal of helping to ensure a representative electorate in US elections.