OLYMPIA — As Secretary of State of Washington, I submit the following comments in response to the United States Postal Service proposal titled Ballot Mail for Federal Elections as noticed on May 29, 2026.
The Constitution is clear that authority over federal elections rests with states and Congress. My authority to administer elections is written in the United States Constitution, Title 52 US Code, National Voter Registration Act of 1993, Help America Vote Act of 2002, Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009, and in Washington state law: in the Washington State Constitution, Revised Code of Washington – Title 29A and our state’s administrative code. The Washington Office of the Secretary of State is committed to protecting voters’ rights and will continue to administer free, fair, and accessible elections.
I oppose USPS’s proposed rule for handling ballot mail in federal elections in alignment with Executive Order 14399 regarding elections.
There are several reasons the proposed rule is unnecessary and unconstitutional.
- The executive order on which this proposed rule is based and the proposed rule itself are unconstitutional intrusions on state authority over elections and also violate the constitutional separation of powers. A court recently agreed that the executive order’s directions to USPS were unlawful, and the USPS has no constitutional authority to interfere with state regulation of the time, place, and manner of holding elections. The court specifically forbid the USPS from proposing or implementing rules outlined in the executive order for the November 3, 2026 election and all earlier elections. The USPS should withdraw the proposed rule.
- To start, there is insufficient time to implement the rule, which would be a financial burden on an electoral system that currently functions well despite limited resources.
The proposed rule is issued with insufficient implementation time and would impose significant costs on state and local governments, especially on rural and resource-limited counties in Washington. Many counties have already prepared their 2026 General Election ballot envelopes. If this rule is adopted and goes into effect before the general election, counties may not be able to use the ballot envelopes they have already purchased. They would instead need to move from windowed envelopes to non-windowed envelopes to accommodate the unique Intelligent Mail Barcode on both the outbound and return mail envelopes.
Further, few counties would be capable of generating unique barcodes for both outbound and return ballot mailings without significant, costly systematic changes. Counties may also need to hire additional contractors and staff to assist if unique barcodes were required. County and statewide budgets have already set and many counties do not have the financial resources to make required changes in such a condensed time period. Under the proposed rule, difficulties in meeting these challenges could result in voters not timely receiving their ballots, interfering with their ability to participate in the election.
While the rule states that it “only applies to federal elections,” it has an equal effect on state and local ballots that appear on our consolidated election ballots. By proposing that USPS may not deliver a ballot to an individual under this “federal election” rule, the proposed rule would also impose a direct impact on citizens’ right to vote in state and local elections.
The condensed timeframe for implementing the proposed rule is also likely to result in significant voter confusion about the list and whether voters will still be able to receive and return ballots by mail. This will require a public education campaign. Our office had a very successful “Mark the Ballot” campaign that showed boosted voter trust even after the election. To successfully implement such a significant change, a reasonable public messaging campaign like this one is essential to ensure that voters ballots are received timely and counted.
- The observed operational realities of the USPS in Washington do not indicate that the USPS has the resources or functional ability to implement the proposed rule in such a condensed timeframe.
My office has already observed a significant degradation of the USPS services over the last few elections. The proposed rule comes on the heels of changes in postmarking practices that are increasing the number of returned ballots being rejected for late postmark. During the 2026 February Special Election, for example, 1.3% of all returned ballots (or 75% of the total rejected ballots) were rejected due to a late postmark. This represents the State’s highest rate of rejection for an election since February 2019 and indicates a delay in postmarking mail compared to previous performance.
We have observed other deteriorations in USPS services. At least one county in Washington recently conducted mail delivery testing to assess the delivery times in their area. Teams of two election staff deposited generic return ballot envelopes in USPS blue collection boxes on different dates to assess USPS delivery rates. The results of their tests do not give me confidence in the USPS.
On January 23rd, 25 ballots were mailed before 10AM. Four were postmarked that same day. 18 were postmarked the following day, January 24th, while the remaining three envelopes were postmarked between three and six days later.
On February 9th, the day before Election Day, 25 ballots were mailed before 10AM. 22 were postmarked the following day, February 10th. By February 12th, three days later, the remaining three envelopes had not yet been received by the county auditor.
On February 10th, on Election Day, 15 ballots were mailed before 9AM. Seven were postmarked that same day. Seven were postmarked the following day, February 11th, and would have been unable to be counted due to the late postmark. By February 12th, two days later, the remaining ballot had not yet been received by the county auditor.
These inconsistencies in postmarking demonstrate a lack of standardization and uneven service delivery even when limited to a small sample area. I’m concerned about what inconsistencies would emerge or worsen if this rule were applied nationally without the appropriate implementation and training to avoid delays or worse.
The rule is likely to lead to delays in mailing ballots, and those delays will exacerbate the postmarking problem. We are currently observing delays and inconsistent delivery by the USPS, and the efforts required by the proposed rule will likely add additional delays to processing.
Not only is the rule unconstitutional, it will disenfranchise voters and substantially increase the burdens on state and local governments for no discernable benefit.
- The proposed rule also lacks essential information to assure election officials and voters that it can be implemented while protecting voter privacy and preventing harm to election processes. If my office were to provide a list to the USPS to implement this rule, how would the USPS maintain security of the list and how often would it be updated? It is clear that the USPS has not contemplated how to process such a list or how to mitigate the inevitable resulting delay to mail processing times.
- The rule does not address any documented challenges related to unauthorized voting. The actual data proves that voter fraud is incredibly rare and does not come anywhere close to impacting our elections. Consistent with national studies demonstrating that voter fraud is rare, a review of Washington State data reveals that between 2008 and 2025 there have been just 5 instances of proven voter fraud out of almost 90 million ballots cast during that time. For decades, Washington has successfully administered secure and accessible vote-by-mail elections, supported by strong voter verification and regular voter roll maintenance, with ballots sent to all registered voters.
- Finally, this rule goes against the very values of the USPS that have been in place since 1775. It is contrary to this beloved institution’s mission and legal mandate to “bind the nation together” and would instead undermine the democratic voting that connects us all.
This rule represents a solution looking for a problem. It’s unnecessary and does nothing to enhance the security of our elections. As written, the federal government would determine which voters can receive and return a ballot using the U.S. Postal Service, which is outside its authority.
Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State oversees areas within state government including managing state elections, registering corporations and charities, and governing the use of the state flag and state seal. The office operates the State Archives and the State Library, documents extraordinary stories in Washington’s history through Legacy Washington, and administers the Combined Fund Drive for charitable giving by state employees and the Productivity Board state employee suggestion program. The Secretary of State oversees the state’s Address Confidentiality Program to help protect survivors of crime and the Civic Engagement Program to increase governmental trust and participation for all Washingtonians.