1. United States
2. Hawaii
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to demand that the United States Postal Service immediately restore real-time postmarks to protect vote-by-mail access for all Americans. The 2025 service slowdown has created a crisis where mail dropped in blue boxes or handed to carriers on or before election deadlines no longer receives timely postmarks, putting legally cast ballots at risk of being thrown out. This problem stems directly from former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Regional Transportation Optimization plan that took effect in 2024. This plan consolidated mail processing from local communities into massive regional hubs that can be hundreds of miles away, sometimes in another state. Ballots dropped at neighborhood post offices or blue boxes in most of the country are no longer processed locally, causing postmarks to lag by days in some cases. Postmarks are critical because election officials use them to determine whether a ballot was mailed on time. Delayed postmarks create murky deadlines for voters who followed proper procedures and make ballots vulnerable to rejection, legal challenges, and partisan manipulation after Election Day. Bad actors could push to discount ballots retroactively based on these processing delays rather than actual voter actions. Rural voters and anyone living more than 50 miles from mega processing centers face the greatest harm, which encompasses most of the country. Seniors, veterans, and voters without easy access to in-person voting are particularly at risk. Both Republicans and Democrats depend on timely postmarks to ensure their votes count, making this a nonpartisan issue affecting constituents across the political spectrum. Public pressure on USPS has proven effective before. Congress has successfully intervened to protect election mail in past cycles, and advocacy efforts have forced DeJoy to pause processing plant consolidation and blocked harmful administrative changes. I urge you to take immediate action to require USPS to restore real-time postmarks and protect the integrity of vote-by-mail for your constituents.