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US Postal Service rule tightens mail-in voting despite court orders blocking changes
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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Isn’t the entire west coast only mail in ballots? Is that the plan? To stop 3 states from voting at all in federal elections?
"Eight states and Washington, D.C., allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington state."
I'm in Oregon and plan on delivering my ballot to the clerk by hand, I recommend every able body to do the same. I don't trust it at all even without this "rule".
If they don’t mail ballots, then how are you going to receive your ballot?
We receive it by mail but it should come really early like in the next couple weeks, along with a bipartisan booklet explaining the issues from each side by race. If there's any funny business in delivering them there is time to print new ones and pick them up directly from the clerk, ours is in the courthouse.
For you, this may work, but there’s two problems.
A - the majority of people will be unaware of this development until voting day rolls around and they’re like “where’s my ballot?” if they register the problem at all. For some, the ballot arriving in the mail is the only reminder they have that there’s a vote happening.
B - people work. People have no transportation. People have no physical capacity to stand in line. And with A happening there’s a good chance they won’t have time to arrange for anything if they even have anyone in their lives to help them with it.
I'm in WA and I never vote by mail. That's mainly because there's a real ballot box not far from me and not much farther from me than the USPS office. But it's also because it eliminates the opportunity for someone in the mail delivery chain to steal, destroy, or misdirect my ballot.
Sorry, but that's incorrect. Barring exceptions, everyone in WA always votes by mail. Your ballot is delivered via USPS to your home. You can (and always should, if able) choose to use the drop boxes to turn in your completed ballot, but all ballots are considered mail ballots (though in exceptional cases you can vote in-person at a county elections office). And if the USPS is allowed to institute this new policy, they will refuse to deliver the ballots at all unless the state provides detailed voter registration data for every ballot to the federal government. If that happens, the state will either have to comply, fight it in court, or find a new way to distribute ballots.
You may or may not be old enough to remember that before the current system, you had to specially request an "absentee" ballot to vote by mail, and most people voted in-person at designated polling sites. Those sites don't exist anymore.
I went to the WA SOS site and it appears that you're correct. I had never thought of the VBM term as encompassing the distribution of ballots. In my mind "voting" is the act of filling in the little circles, popping the ballot into the envelope(s), and returning the ballot somehow. So yes, if Republicans can successfully prevent the distribution of ballots, that's going to be a huge problem in WA state and other states that use primarily VBM. As for "absentee" ballots, I'd heard the term but not in a long time, and mentally associated it with voting systems back east where I'm from and where VBM did not exist when I lived there. An "absentee" ballot was something you requested if you were going to be unable to physically get to the polling location for some reason.
Yeah, so historically, it was the same here in WA. You could file a special request for an absentee ballot if you were unable to be physically present to vote, but you had to file your request for every election. In 1991 they made it policy that anyone could request an absentee ballot on an ongoing basis, and that would become your default voting method. In 2005, they gave counties the option of switching to VBM as the default for everyone. Most switched immediately, and I think the rest followed pretty quickly. Back then, there were no drop boxes and you had to mail your ballot back with postage. The drop boxes arrived a few years later, and pre-paid postage was added a little later.
Republicans hate VBM for two reasons: the ease and convenience increases voter turnout. The voter pamphlets you get with your ballot increase awareness of who and what you're voting for. Both of these things result in fewer Republican wins.
Always, always use the ballot boxes.
Where are you going get your ballot if it’s not being delivered to your mailbox?
In WA (and Oregon, and possibly California), you can print your ballot at home if it's not received in the mail.
You go to the polling place and they hand it to you.
Republican agents firebombed a fuck ton of ballot boxes in the last election.
A fuck ton? I don't remember a fuck ton. I remember a few in Oregon, not "a fuck ton". There are literal thousands of them in service, and the vast majority were not damaged. Plus, they have implemented better fire security because of those incidents, and many people's ballots that were damaged were allowed to vote again.
This just sounds like fearmongering about ballot boxes for some reason. The USPS is actually in a position where it's possible to drastically affect an election. A group of chuds is not able to affect that many ballotboxes. What exactly are you advocating for, what's your solution?
Calm your fuckin tits. Ballot boxes are fine just be aware that many will likely be torched again this fall. They have no intention to lose this election, and they will pull out the stops. This is an existential threat, the republicans would not be doing what they're doing if they ever thought they'd face consequences. Plan accordingly.
How are you planning accordingly?
Exactly
No, not only mail-in ballots. Voters may choose to mail-in their ballots or submit them the old-fashioned ways. For some, mailing their ballots is easier than old ways and increases voter participation. Republicans want to discourage voter participation, hence the war on voting by mail.
If the post office won’t deliver ballots then how does anyone there receive their ballots?
Looks like it’s Utah, Colorado, Vermont, and Hawaii as well. Though there’s a good likelihood Utah handed over voter rolls.
The ballots here arrive in the mail. That includes envelopes to enclose them in when you return them, either by mail or by drop-off somewhere. I've not yet heard of the distribution of ballets by mail being a target of Republicans, but it could happen. Then we'd be back to the real oldy-time voting methods of having to physically go into a polling center where you only got your ballot on arrival. Republicans would love that, because it both discourages voting and would feel like something from the 40s and 50s, the era when America Was Great. Polling centers would also allow greater control over who got to vote - darker-skinned people or people of non-European heritage or women or the disabled or anyone who looked "weird" could be easily turned away without even having seen a ballot.
Mostly people have to work or don’t have transportation so they don’t get to vote. Lines, not everyone is physically capable of standing in line. There are also cases of, whelp, the polling place line is around the block and down the street but it’s 8pm so, too bad, so sad, go home voteless.