The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) quietly changed what it means for mail to be “postmarked,” a move that could make letters, ballots, and time-sensitive paperwork appear late, even if they were dropped off on time.
Under the new policy, the official postmark date may be applied days after mail enters the system, rather than the day it’s placed in a mailbox.
Voting and healthcare advocates are sounding alarms, since the USPS itself is not.
When to mail in a ballot so it counts
The USPS officially published the rule change on Nov. 24, 2025, and it went into effect on Dec. 24. Previously, as long as you put a properly addressed and stamped letter into your mailbox before pickup, the post office would mark the date of receipt as that day. The new rule states that the postmark can be applied later, such as at the processing facility.
It can take multiple days for mail to reach this facility, making it appear as though you mailed the item later than you did.
This could cause massive issues in multiple sectors, as @cjnlegalnurse explained in a TikTok video.
@cjnlegalnurse 12/29/25 USPS didn’t change how fast mail moves. They changed what the postmark means. That affects elections, healthcare, and anyone living by a deadline. #USPS #VotingRights #MailInBallots #HealthcareAccess #PatientRights ♬ original sound – Cambria Nwosu, DNP, RN, LNC
“Think ballots,” she said. “Many states say a mail-in ballot counts if it’s postmarked by election day. Under this rule, you can mail your ballot before election day and still have it postmarked after. So that’s not voter fraud, that’s logistics quietly overruling intent.”
If the last thing we need isn’t more voter disenfranchisement, it’s more trouble with health insurance companies.
“Health care runs on mail deadlines, appeals, prior authorizations, Medicare notices, and prescription paperwork,” the TikToker continued. “If an appeal has to be postmarked by a certain date and USPS processes days later, it looks late. So late appeals get denied. Denied appeals delay care.”
This could also make your taxes late if you try to mail them right on April 15. According to Forbes, the U.S. tax code adopted the postmark as the date of filing rule back in 1954. Now, if you don’t mail those documents early, you could incur financial penalties.
Experts are advising people to ensure an accurate postmark by traveling to the post office and asking them to mark it right there. You may even need to pay extra for a Certificate of Mailing that proves when you mailed it.
“They know they won’t win midterms without cheating”
This, as always, poses extra challenges for disabled, elderly, and impoverished Americans. Not everyone can just hop in the car and head to the local USPS branch. Even among those who can, this creates an extra barrier in between them and optional but very important acts.
Especially amid ongoing attacks on mail-in ballots by the Trump administration, critics expressed certainty that this is another attack on voting rights.
On Bluesky, @goldengateblond.bsky.social wrote that “this seems specifically designed to break mail-in voting (where deadlines are defined by postmark).”
“Of all the dirty tricks: juking USPS rules so that the postmark of mail-in ballots won’t reflect the date they were put in the hands of the Postal Service, creating a pretext to throw out the votes,” said @ebharrington.bsky.social.
Many on the left had the same thoughts on X.
“My first thought was ballots,” wrote @MagikCure. “Mid terms catastrophe in the making and probably the intent behind it.”
User @charise_lee, almost certainly referring to Republicans, asserted that “they know they won’t win midterms without cheating.”
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