Senator delivers floor remarks decrying use of new bureaucratic hurdles to suppress voting; New Postal Service rule under Trump routes Washingtonians’ ballots to regional processing centers, delaying postmarking for days after they were mailed; Test case: In Snohomish Co, just 1/5 of ballots mailed for a February special election were postmarked on the same day they were sent
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling out the Trump Administration’s war on mail-in voting as the latest frontier in a long history of voter disenfranchisement in the United States – especially a new rule that significantly delays the postmarking of ballots, leading to them being tossed out instead of counted.
“Americans have been beaten, they’ve been bloodied, and some have given their lives just to secure this right to vote. Women had to fight for it in 1920. It’s amazing that I stand here today, just a little over 100 years later, but 100 years ago, I would not even [have] been allowed to vote.
“Wars have been fought to preserve it. My father and uncle both fought in World War II, and I guarantee you they were fighting for our right to vote. And even in this chamber, we had to fight to preserve and certify the 2020 election. So when we are talking about voting rights, we are not talking about an abstract idea,” Sen. Cantwell said.
“Disenfranchisement today is more bureaucratic, it’s more technical, but the results for ordinary citizens can be the same. Their voices are shunned out of a democracy.”
She highlighted a new rule implemented by the United States Postal Service in December under pressure from the Trump administration. The new rule changes where mail is postmarked, requiring it to be processed at a regional distribution center instead of a local post office, which can delay postmarking for up to several days.
There is evidence that these postmarking delays will disenfranchise voters. During the February 2026 special election, Snohomish County conducted a test of their mail service to assess the delivery times in their area and shared the results with the Washington Secretary of State. As part of the test, election staff deposited generic return ballot envelopes in USPS blue collection boxes at various points leading up to the election. They found that:
- On Jan. 23, 25 ballots were mailed before 10 a.m. but only four were postmarked that same day. Eighteen were postmarked the following day, and the remaining three were postmarked between three and six days later.
- On Feb. 9, the day before Election Day, 25 ballots were mailed before 10 a.m. Twenty-two weren’t postmarked until the following day, Feb. 10. By Feb. 12 – three days later – the remaining three ballots still had not yet been received by the County Auditor.
- On Feb. 10, Election Day, 15 ballots were mailed before 9 a.m. Less than half – seven – were postmarked that same day. Another seven were postmarked the following day, Feb. 11, and were unable to be counted. By Feb. 12, two days later, the remaining ballot had not yet been received by the County Auditor. The results of this spot check indicate that of the ballots mailed the morning of the election, less than half would have been counted.
“Following the changes in the postmark practices, the Secretary of the State of Washington is seeing increased numbers of return ballots being rejected for late postmarks. For example, during the 2026 February special election, 75% of the total rejected ballots were due to late postmarks,” Sen. Cantwell said.
“Snohomish County, Washington, recently conducted a test to assess the postal delivery times in their area. This was a small test: Four dates in January and February during a special election, a tiny sample of voters in one county, but of the sample ballots mailed, only about 20% were postmarked on the day they were actually mailed. 20%!”
She continued: “With the administration’s plan, if you are among 1/3 of Americans that vote by mail, you can never know whether your vote was counted. There is no recourse.”
In the 2024 election, nearly 48 million people – almost a third of all voters – cast their ballots by mail. All states offer registered voters the opportunity to vote by mail in federal general elections and 12 states, including Washington – an early pioneer in expanding by-mail voting – conducted their 2024 elections entirely by mail. Washington state started vote-by-mail in 1983, adopted optional vote-by-mail in 2005, and enacted universal vote-by-mail in 2011.
Video of her speech today is HERE; a transcript is HERE.
Sen. Cantwell has been a stalwart defender against overreach of the Trump administration into our elections:
- On June 17, she joined several of her Senate Democratic colleagues for a spotlight forum highlighting President Donald Trump’s illegal overreach into our free and fair elections.
- On June 8, she joined 23 of her Senate colleagues in demanding answers over the Trump Administration’s decision to remove the most recent version of the Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses manual from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) website without explanation.
- On April 29, she was tapped by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to join a task force of senators defending our elections from interference.
- On April 23, she joined colleagues in introducing the Absentee and Mail Voter Protection Act to block President Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional March 31 executive order attacking mail and absentee ballots and protect the right to vote by mail.
- On April 22, she sent a letter to the United States Postal Service (USPS) warning the agency against complying with the executive order, which would undermine mail-in voting.
- On April 1, after the executive order on mail-in voting was announced, she issued a statement in opposition.
- On March 18, she convened a group of current and former elected officials and representatives of nonpartisan voter advocacy groups for a virtual press conference on defending voter access. Video of that entire virtual press conference is HERE; video of Sen. Cantwell’s statement is HERE; and a transcript of Sen. Cantwell’s statement is HERE.
- On March 15, she issued a snapshot report showing that the SAVE America Act – a voter suppression bill – would cost Washington state taxpayers more than $35 million this year alone.
- On Feb. 24, Sen. Cantwell invited Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs as her guest to President Trump’s State of the Union address to draw attention to the issue.
- On Feb. 20, she convened local leaders in Seattle for a press conference urging Washingtonians to fight back against these proposed new burdens to voting.
- On Feb. 19, she gathered in Vancouver with the Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and local chapter heads of the League of Women Voters and the NAACP for a press conference on how this bill would disenfranchise voters.
- Also on Feb. 19, she released a snapshot report showing who in Washington would face undue hurdles to voting if the SAVE America Act were signed into law. The report shows that certain populations – including people who live in rural areas, women who changed their name after marriage, and people who recently moved – would face additional, cumbersome burdens to prove their citizenship.
- On Feb. 5, she appeared on MSNOW’s Morning Joe to push back against the Trump administration’s heightened efforts to interfere in state-run elections and collect private data on American voters. Video of Sen. Cantwell’s appearance is HERE; a transcript is HERE.
- On Jan. 29, Sen. Cantwell joined Senate colleagues in a letter to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, pushing DOJ to stop its unlawful pressure campaign to coerce dozens of states into providing the Trump Administration their voter rolls, which include voters’ personally identifiable information. DOJ has sued 24 states – including Washington state – and the District of Columbia demanding the personal information of their voters.
- On Jan. 15, she joined Senate colleagues in a letter to USPS Postmaster General David Steiner raising concerns with recent developments affecting postmark practices. Right before the holiday season, USPS changed its postmark practices, which could have significant impacts on voters nationwide and in Washington state – including rural voters, military and overseas voters, and many others who rely on rely on the mail to safely and securely cast their ballot.
- On Jan. 9, she joined 13 Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a significant case pending before the Court that affects voting by mail. The case, brought by the Republican National Committee, threatens the election administration practices of states like Washington that permit the counting of mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be counted when they are received within a certain number of days after Election Day. The Court heard oral arguments in the case in March and a ruling is pending, with a decision expected soon before the Court concludes its current term.