The United States Postal Service (USPS) has urged Americans planning to vote by mail in the November 5 election to send their ballots no later than Tuesday, October 29.
The nationwide advisory released Monday comes amid final preparations for what is expected to be another significant test of the nation’s mail-in voting infrastructure and following several concerning incidents involving ballot security across multiple states.
Early Monday morning, authorities launched investigations after ballot drop boxes were set ablaze in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington, destroying hundreds of ballots. The Vancouver fire occurred at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center, while Portland officials reported an incendiary device was used in a separate ballot box attack.
These incidents, along with a recent ballot-destroying fire at a Phoenix postal station, highlight growing security concerns for mail-in voting.
According to the USPS release, postal officials expect their 2024 election mail performance to match or surpass their 2020 benchmarks when the agency successfully handled an unprecedented surge in mail-in ballots during the height of the pandemic.
Newsweek contacted USPS’ press contact Mart Johnson via email on Monday for comment.
The Postal Service’s current performance data paints an encouraging picture. In the first three weeks of October, 99.9 percent of all election-related mail—including both outbound ballots to voters and completed ballots returning to election officials—reached their destinations within seven days.
More impressively, inbound ballots from voters to election officials are currently being delivered in an average of just one day, while outbound ballots to voters are taking approximately two days, according to the release.
These numbers align closely with the agency’s stellar performance during the 2020 general election, when 99.89 percent of voter-mailed ballots reached election officials within a week. During that election cycle, 97.9 percent of ballots arrived within three days, and 99.7 percent made it to their destination within five days.
The average delivery time for ballots from election officials to voters was 2.1 days, while return ballots from voters averaged just 1.6 days.
To maintain these high standards, the Postal Service initiated what it calls “extraordinary measures” on October 21. This enhanced protocol will remain active through Election Day and continue until each state’s final deadline for accepting mail-in ballots.
The measures include expanded delivery and collection schedules, dedicated ballot pickup services, and specialized sorting procedures at processing facilities to expedite delivery to election boards.
These additional steps mirror successful strategies from previous elections. The Postal Service notably handled ballot mail during the 2020 general election with remarkable efficiency, despite it representing just 0.11 percent of their total mail volume.
“Our recommendation remains for voters who choose to mail in their ballots to do so before Election Day and at least a week before their election office needs to receive them,” the advisory stated.
The USPS, which delivers to approximately 167 million addresses nationwide six and often seven days a week, is currently implementing its decade-long “Delivering for America” transformation plan. This initiative aims to modernize operations while maintaining the organization’s status as one of America’s most trusted institutions.
As an independent federal establishment overseen by a bipartisan Board of Governors, the Postal Service operates without tax dollars for general expenses, funding itself through the sale of postage, products, and services.
While postal officials will continue deploying extraordinary measures for ballots mailed after Tuesday’s recommended deadline, they stress that early mailing remains the best way to ensure votes are counted.
With many states requiring ballots to be received—not just postmarked—by Election Day, the October 29 mailing deadline represents a critical cutoff for voters planning to participate by mail.
The Postal Service confirmed it will maintain its enhanced ballot-handling procedures through the final days of election season but emphasized that voters who wait until after Tuesday’s recommended deadline risk their ballots not reaching election officials in time to be counted.
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