US Postal Service to take extra steps to ensure ballot deliveries

By David Shepardson and Jacob ‌Bogage

WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - ​The ​US Postal Service said Thursday it will take a series of extraordinary measures to ensure the delivery of millions of ballots for next ‌month's 2026 congressional elections, including extending hours at some retail branches.

USPS ⁠said in a memo seen by Reuters that retail branches may extend hours starting Oct. 4 ‌through the Nov. 3 election to ‌handle ballots and establish a "Ballot Postmark Only" line at retail counters or a drive-through Ballot Mail option. USPS also will conduct expedited handling, extra deliveries,

and special ​pickups of ballots..

USPS also said that before the election, workers can use the Priority Mail Express network to expedite the delivery of completed ballots returned ⁠by voters that might otherwise not be delivered in time. Starting October 24 through the election, carriers must ​check every delivery point for outgoing mail, regardless of whether they have incoming mail.

On September 14, the US Supreme Court declined to ​let USPS enforce a rule targeting mail-in ballots, ‌dealing a setback to President Donald Trump's effort to restrict voting by mail.

The agency adopted the measure after Trump issued a ⁠March executive order aimed at tightening rules governing mail voting.

In 2024, USPS delivered 99.2 million ballots to and from voters in the presidential election. About 30% of votes were cast ⁠by mail in the November 2024 presidential election, down from 46% in 2020.

Trump's fellow Republicans are ​locked in a tight battle to retain control of Congress in the midterms. Restricting mail-in ballots would stand to benefit Republicans given Democratic voters disproportionately use mail-in ballots, according to various ‌surveys.

Under the rule that was blocked, states would have had to provide lists of mail ballot recipients to USPS and use ‌agency-approved outbound and return ballot mail envelopes outfitted with unique barcodes. The Postal Service could ⁠then have refused to send ‌out ballots that did not ​comply or were associated with voters not appearing on the lists.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Jacob Bogage, Editing by Franklin Paul and ‌Aurora Ellis)

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