Why your mail may not be postmarked the same day it’s sent : NPR

In response to changes to the U.S. Postal Service, California state officials are urging mail-in voters for a congressional redistricting special election to return their ballots before Election Day to ensure their ballots are postmarked before the deadline. Here, a post office in Montclair, California, seen last year.

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Changes at the U.S. Postal Service are forcing people who rely on postmarks to vote, file taxes or send legal documents to be very careful about cutting them off as deadlines approach.

Postmarks include the dates that the USPS stamps on envelopes, and these are often used to determine whether first-class mail was sent on time.

But the Postal Service proposed revising its mailing standards to say that the postmark date “does not inherently or necessarily correspond” to the date a mail item was first accepted by a mail carrier or dropped off at a post office or collection box.

“In other words, the date on a machine-applied postmark can reflect the date the mail item was first accepted by the Postal Service, but this is not definitively the case,” the USPS said in a recent Federal Register notice.

USPS has not changed the way it applies postmarks. What has changed is that as the postal agency continues its controversial reorganization plan, more and more parts of the country may not see their first-class mail processed until the day After it is collected by USPS.

That’s largely because the agency has reduced the frequency with which it picks up mail in some areas more than 50 miles from one of its new regional processing and distribution centers. According to the USPS, this change “saves money, reduces carbon emissions and benefits processing operations” at a time when fewer people and businesses are sending first-class mail compared to decades ago.

Yet in California, which is holding a special election for a closely watched ballot proposition on congressional redistricting, the USPS notice regarding postmarks prompted state officials to urge eligible mail-in voters to drop off their ballots by November 4.

“If you want your vote to count, which I assume you do because you’re mailing it in, don’t mail it on Election Day” if you’re more than 50 miles from a USPS regional processing center, California Attorney General Rob Bonta advised at a news conference this month, noting that a voter might consider dropping off their ballot at an official voting center or box. deposit.

To avoid the risk that your mail will not be postmarked the same day it is dropped off, USPS recommends stopping at a post office.

“If a customer – in any community, no matter where they are – wants to ensure that their ballot or other mailing receives a postmark containing a date that matches the mailing date, the customer must visit a Postal Service outlet and request a manual postmark in person at the counter. It will be provided free of charge,” USPS spokeswoman Cathy Koeppen Purcell said. in a press release.

It’s advice the agency has tried to emphasize in past voting seasons, when it reminds absentee voters that the USPS doesn’t automatically postmark every piece of mail.

However, for those who do not have easy access to a USPS facility, including residents of rural communities and people with disabilities, going to a post office to obtain a postmark can be a challenge.

And for some mail-in voters, that can pose another barrier to the ballot box, as more states change election rules to move up deadlines and no longer count mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day but arriving afterward.