US (SAVE THE POST OFFICE via AMERICANS FOR FINANCIAL REFORM) : VOTE BY MAIL must be PROTECTED.

 

Right now, a voter can drop their ballot in the mail on or before Election Day and still risk having it rejected or questioned. Not because they missed a deadline, but because the Postal Service may not postmark that ballot for days. That is the reality created by Louis DeJoy’s final set of changes at the USPS before he was bullied out of office by Trump to make room for the new FedEx-aligned Postmaster General. Postmarks are how election officials determine whether a ballot was mailed before the Election Day deadline. When postmarking is delayed, ballots are put at risk. They get challenged. They get set aside. They get rejected. This problem did not appear overnight. It is the direct result of DeJoy’s Regional Transportation Optimization plan, which removed mail processing from many local communities, sending mail hundreds of miles away before receiving a postmark. This is a bipartisan problem. Rural voters, including many Republican voters, are often farthest from processing hubs and depend most on timely postmarks. We have protected vote by mail from other attempts by the Trump administration before, and we can do it again. In fact, under pressure from the public, Congress has stepped in specifically to protect election mail before. The question is whether they will act in time to correct this before the midterm elections. That’s why we need to tell Congress to act now to protect vote by mail by restoring real-time postmarks. Send Your Message Let’s be clear, inaction will give Trump exactly what he wants. Delayed postmarks create uncertainty that can be weaponized to throw out lawful ballots and manufacture chaos. Mail that once stayed local is now trucked to distant regional hubs before it is processed, receiving a postmark. In many cases, those hubs are hundreds of miles away, sometimes in entirely different states. The dangerous impact is clear. When mail processing is delayed, postmarks lag, and deadlines become murky for voters who are trying to do everything right. We have fought these fights before and won. When USPS changes threatened election mail in the past, public outrage forced action. Processing changes were paused. Safeguards were put in place. That only happened because people spoke up early. If Congress stays silent now, these delayed postmarks will become the new normal. That gives bad actors exactly what they want. Confusion, challenges, and an excuse to question valid votes after the fact. This moment demands urgency. Demand that Congress act now to protect every vote, and push USPS to restore real-time postmarks. Thank you for standing up and taking action to protect vote by mail. Annie and the Save the Post Office Team. Support This Campaign

Americans for Financial Reform