Notes  About Using the U.S. Postal Service

Using the US Mail to send your ballot is convenient. You can be anywhere in the country (or even the world) and send your ballot by mail.

But you need to send it early enough.

If you can't mail it at least a full 7 days or more before Election Day, your best bet is to use a Ballot Drop Off Box or turn your envelope in at a Vote Center.

 

Why so far in advance?

A mailed-in ballot has to be postmarked by 8:00pm on Election Day, and received by the Registrar of Voters within 7 days after Election Day.

 

Postmarks are not instant. 

They do not happen automatically when the envelope goes into the mailbox.

The postmark is not necessarily applied at the Post Office in the same ZIP code as where the ballot is mailed. 

 

When mail is collected from postal boxes, it's usually:

●     Grouped, put on a truck and

●    Taken to a Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC), where the postmark is applied. That may not happen the same night as the pickup, or even within several days, depending on circumstances.

A Statement from the U.S. Postal Service

 

On December 24, 2025 the USPS announced the finalization of Section 608.11 , Postmarks and Postal Possession, to be added to the Domestic Mail Manual. The new section is specific as to how the USPS uses the postmark operationally, identifies what markings qualify as postmarks, describes how postmarks are applied during postal operations, and clarifies what a postmark does or does not convey. The rule was first shared with the public in August, 2025, but had actually be in increasing practice for over six years.

They explained that a postmark is usually applied by an automated machine at a processing facility, which includes regional processing and distribution centers. Because it can take time for a piece of mail to reach these facilities, this postmark may not reflect the date that the piece of mail was first received by a mail carrier, local retail location, or a USPS mailbox.

 Manual postmarks can be requested in person, upon request at the counter, at every post office, station, or branch during business hours. Manual postmarks cancel postage, indicate the location where the postmark is applied, and the date on which it was accepted at that unit.  

Ballot mailed from overseas military post offices, fleet post offices, and diplomatic post offices still needs extra time and special tags. The USPS still recommends that voters living overseas or who are members of the military request ballots as early as their jurisdiction allows. Military voters may choose to use an 11-DOD label to return their ballots, and other overseas voters can consult the Department of State  for information about returning their ballots. 

Here’s a very common story:

 It was Friday, November 1^st. Election day was Tuesday, November 5^th.

 Gina had filled out her ballot and properly put it in the envelope. The posted pickup time at Gina’s local mailbox is 3:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

 Gina mailed her ballot at her local mailbox on Friday, November 1^st at 3:15 pm, four days before Election Tuesday. Sadly, she didn’t realize that her very-efficient postal carrier had already picked up the mail - promptly at 3:00 pm - and the mail is not picked up from that box on weekends.

 The following Monday Gina’s ballot was picked up promptly at 3:00 pm and taken to the local post office, where it was bagged and put on a truck to be taken overnight to the Postal Service Central Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC), because postmarks and sorting are generally not done at local post-offices anymore.

At the P&DC, sometime on Tuesday, Gina’s ballot envelope went through the machines that sort and postmark the mail. If anything went wrong during postal processing, her envelope might not have gotten postmarked until after the 8:00 pm on Tuesday, the election day deadline.  It was then bagged and loaded onto a truck for final delivery to the County Registrar of Voters (ROV).

Finally, on Wednesday morning, Gina’s ballot arrived at the ROV. As long as a mail-in ballot is delivered by the end of election week, that’s OK in California. But it still needs to have the right postmark.

The envelope was inspected for proper signature, and for a postmark before 8:00 pm on Tuesday, 11/5. If there were any problems in handling at the P&DC, Gina’s ballot’s postmark might be late - and her ballot, which she mailed on Friday afternoon, could not be counted.

 

What do you think happened? Did Gina’s vote get counted?

 

If it's less than 8-10 days before Election Day - try using a Ballot Drop Box or a Vote Center ~ you can drop your mail-in ballot there!