December 24, 2025 

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announced that letters and packages will be postmarked with the date they are processed at a postal facility rather than when they are dropped off in a mailbox — a policy that could affect whether time-sensitive items, such as mail-in ballots, are considered on time. 

The USPS recommends that voters who plan to vote by mail send their ballots at least seven days before Election Day. Voters who want to ensure that their mail-in ballot is postmarked on the date it is received by USPS may go to any post office or other USPS retail location and request a manual postmark free of charge.

Maryland voters are encouraged to deposit their mail-in ballots in designated Board of Elections dropoff boxes. Dropoff boxes are secure, well-lit, easily accessible and conveniently located. Mail-in ballots may be returned to a dropbox up until 8pm on Election Day.

Excerpts from Here’s What the New USPS Rule Means for Voting by Mail
By Jonathan Diaz, Campaign Legal Center
January 8, 2026

In USPS’s own words, the newly adopted Section 608.11 of the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) “is intended to explain the Postal Service’s operational use of the postmark, identify the markings that qualify as postmarks, and clarify what information such markings can be reliably taken to convey.”

USPS has repeatedly stated that the newly published sections of the DMM do not reflect any changes related to USPS’s use of postmarks. Rather, they memorialize existing USPS policy and procedures regarding the use of postmarks and — for the first time in the DMM — define what a postmark is and what it signifies.

USPS has confirmed that nothing in Section 608.11 of the DMM changes any USPS policy related to the treatment and delivery of Ballot Mail. It is longstanding USPS policy to treat all Ballot Mail as First-Class Mail, regardless of its actual paid mail class, and to endeavor to postmark every return ballot mailed by a voter.

Many people may not know that USPS does not apply a postmark to everything sent through the mail. Rather, the postmark’s main intended purpose is to cancel postage stamps after use. But with these revisions, the DMM now expressly indicates that, because a postmark inscribes the date and place of its application, a postmark also demonstrates that USPS had custody of the mail piece on the inscribed date, if not sooner.

In any event, this new postmarking guidance from USPS should serve as a guarantee to election officials that returned Ballot Mail with a postmark dated on or before Election Day was cast by the voter and transmitted to USPS on that date at the latest.

Voters also should continue to trust that USPS will securely, safely and reliably deliver mail-in ballots to election officials — while keeping in mind USPS’s recommendations about turning in mail ballots with sufficient advance time to ensure that they can be delivered to election officials on time.

Voting by mail is a safe, secure and accessible way to vote that has been used in the United States for more than 150 years. Voters should be confident that their vote, no matter how they cast their ballot, will be counted, and their voice will be heard.