John: Changes at the U.S. Postal Service are going to make a known problem even worse, and it could affect thousands of voters across the country in this November’s midterm elections.
Legally speaking, the date stamped on your mail is when it counts as being sent, from your bills to your taxes to your ballot. For decades, that's been stamped the day you gave it to the United States Postal Service (USPS), whether you handed it to your mail carrier, left it in a mailbox, or dropped it at the local post office.
That's no longer the case. Your mail will be stamped the day it hits a regional processing facility, not your local post office. That could be a day, or more, later than when you handed your mail over, thanks to the Trump administration's "cost-cutting" efforts.
How does this impact vote-by-mail? If you live in a state with a mail-in ballot grace period -- something most states still have, even though MAGA is trying to end those -- your ballot still counts if it was postmarked by Election Day and received in the grace period after Election Day. In this case, however, a ballot mailed on Election Day may not be postmarked as Election Day, making your ballot automatically invalid even though you followed the rule of law and the postmark date is out of your control.
We have to make sure every voter understands this change and how it can impact them -- from vote-by-mail, to their bills, their taxes, legal replies to companies, everything. What Americans think is the mailing deadline may not be the deadline anymore and that's a huge deal that's being under-reported by the media.
John, Every voter needs to know about this massive change. Will you pitch in $25 or whatever you can today and help us spread the word about the USPS changes so we can protect mail-in ballots? >>
