Archive links: https://web.archive.org/web/20251229233408/https://bsky.app/profile/goldengateblond.bsky.social/post/3mb5t23bf3k23 or https://archive.is/uvuWB
If you want to vote by mail please do so as soon as you can and consider dropping it off at the counter where they will postmark it right away.
Also if you live in a state where you’re allowed to photograph your ballot consider doing so to have proof you voted a certain way.
Note that as a counterpoint the federal register website claims they are just clarifying language to improve public understanding: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/12/2025-15266/postmarks-and-postal-possession
I didn’t check that document very closely yet.
They’ve cheated before, they’ll do it again. It’s like playing whack-a-mole trying to get around it.
It’s not a secret. Just nobody in any leadership position seems willing/able to do anything about it
Jesus Christ… More bullshit conservative nonsense?? Come on.
1117 days 5 hours 35 minutes to go until this administration ends
You still believe they will just leave after the next election? That’s cute.
wait it’s- it’s only been one year of US’s conservative administration?.. fucking hell, i kept thinking to myself “wow, a lot has happened, thankfully that means a lot of time has passed, and a new government is going to get picked soon:)”
Fuck the USPS. It’s one of the worst organizations I’ve encountered. They just flat out refuse to deliver to many communities, despite their reputation of taking care of rural places.
That’s not the USPS. That is decades of defunding the USPS.
What would the socialists do?
Oh and this is my 700th comment here on this Lemmy instance. I don’t have to keep telling you that I’ve posted more comments here than Hexbear.
Interesting that this is even relevant in the US.
Here in Germany the only relevant metric is whether a document has arrived at the recipient before any given deadline, from ballots to legal documents. It is considered your responsibility to ensure sending anything sufficiently early.
Wow. That’s subject to abuse though unless there is a maintained predictable transit time. Maintaining a timestamp for the handoff is a critical tracking metric.
How would it be subject to abuse¹? Deliveries are somewhat predictable, by law 95% of letters must arrive within 3 days, 99% within 4 days. Mail-in ballots “should” be delivered within 2 days.
If it must arrive regardless of circumstances you can generally just send it via fax (except for mail-in ballots of course).
Though this has also lead to some issues. Because the 2025 election was a snap election there was significantly less time for mail-in ballots to be sent. This caused issues for many expats living outside Germany and as a result, at least a couple thousand votes from 200,000 registered expats were probably discarded.
Edit: ¹ any more than a system relying on the date on the postage stamp?
how would it be subject to abuse
are you really struggling to understand how it could be subject to abuse lol maybe the person in charge of the post office lives in an area they know would vote a certain way so they give everyone a day off and the mail arrives too late to be counted
How is that different from your current system, though? Couldn’t the same postal worker just delay the stamping by one day, or stamp tomorrows date onto today’s letters?
The advantage of our system is, that we know the results in the night of the election. How would that work if letters arriving a week later would still count? On the other hand, we don’t have such a huge problem with voter suppression as the US: No gerrymandering, no need to register to vote, polling stations are accessible at reasonable times without long queues etc.
Please don’t imagined this couldn’t happen. Germany is not without active political threats. When a system can be abused it’s only a meter of time before it is.
The difference is that in a system where the standard is set to postmarked upon arrival it requires an active deviation from protocol that is more discoverable and potentially an illegal offense. It’s not bullet proof, but more difficult to manipulate intentionally or unintentionally on a large scale.
Intentionally delaying a mailing is already a crime in itself. And if you already have the power to shut down a mailing hub for a day or two without abyone noticing, I don’t see how it would be more difficult to change the date in the stamping machine.
I have no doubt that, when the Nazis come to power here as well, they will use all measures to suppress free voting. We of all people know how that works. But in that case, using the stamping date for mail-in voting won’t stop them anyway, as that’s a simple law, that can simply be changed by the people in power. Case in point: This very article about changing the postmark application rules. It seems, they didn’t even have to change a law for that, just some USPS internal guidelines.
how is what different than whos current system? i merely just gave a quick idea for how this one could be open to abuse and am making zero claims for any sort of postal system being better/worse than any other
how is what different than whos current system?
The US system, using the date of the stamp instead of the arrival date. Neither system is safe from abuse. It’s just different.
Mail-in voting is inherently more error prone than voting in person. That’s why it’s important to make in person voting as accessible as possible. Voting on a Sunday, having plentiful accessible polling stations without significant waiting time surely helps, and is a reason why the share of voting by mail is traditionally way lower here in Germany than in the US. I never had to wait for more than 2 minutes at a polling station here in Germany.
Have a nice new year’s eve and guten Rutsch, as we say here.
I still don’t see how stamping immediately could reduce the risk of abuse.
Anyone intent on doing so in a position of power can still do so. Maybe they have a stamp for a future date, maybe they “lose” certain mail, maybe they do not empty any of those election mail boxes the week before an election.
you specifically said you dont see how it would be subject to abuse, not that [different thing than what i was talking about] is less risk prone
I mean, everything is subject to abuse. The relevant factor is the likelihood and difficulty of such abuse, isn’t it? And I don’t really see how using the stamped date as an authority reduces either or how not doing so increases either. The way you’d commit abuse changes, sure, but doesn’t make abuse any easier/harder in my opinion, just different.
again, youre just talking about something entirely different. you said you dont see how a certain system was subject to abuse and i made up a possible way. all this talk about some system being more or less subject to abuse than another has nothing to do with the fact you said you couldnt see how a certain system was subject to abuse. i am not making a claim about any system being better than another so i have no idea why youre bringing that up
If a black* person hands in a letter to guarantee that it’s received on time, and the worker is racist and believes it a tax form, they could just leave it for a few days/weeks before processing to guarantee that it’s late.
*Replace with any marginalised group or person. It could even include you.
In Germany, you usually don’t hand in letters, nor does the postman collect letters at your home. You throw them into a post box on the main street, which is emptied once or twice a day. So by the time the postal worker collects the mail they don’t have any means to know who posted which letter.
For really important mail you also have the option to use “Einschreiben” (registered mail) where the recipient has to sign that they received the letter.
Sure but you gotta remember, your system is run by Germans, we just have fucking Americans in charge of everything over here!
This will make it easier for nefarious parties to just hold onto mail as long as possible before stamping it.
Really, please just vote in person this time if you can.
Unless you’ll be intimidated by National Guard or ICE, in which case just vote as soon as possible.
Really just vote as soon as possible anyway. We all know there’s going to be illegal interference in the election. The question is to what extent and what kind. Do what you can to predict and avoid problems.
Some of the voter suppression involved having a single voting place for a large area, and closing it at 5pm even though there was a very long line of people still waiting to vote.
If you can’t guarantee your postal vote will be counted, and you can’t guarantee that you’ll get into a voting booth, what do you do?
I agree with the sentiment of voting however you can. It’s one of the few ways that people get to decide how the country is run. I’m just angry that this right is being gradually taken away.
If you’re in line you’re guaranteed a vote
Without water and bathrooms
Politely, people who don’t carry water bottles is like bruh
Theoretically.
That’s just law, and law means less than it used to these days. Understand your rights, fight for your rights, but don’t count on them in 2026.
time was you could more reliably count on the judicial than the executive. these last eight years however
You can often early vote in person at your county clerk’s office!
cali has official drop boxes, and polling places more safer to do that, weve have been doing that for a while. be aware there are attempts at using fake boxes during elections.
i’m not in a major city, but around here the official drop boxes are all usually in city hall up until the week prior
If you don’t know when it is going to be stamped, then you cannot possibly plan accordingly. Trying to be early to get around the unreliable time frame isn’t planning accordingly, it is just guessing.
Especially when they’re sure to find ways to demolish post office processing times around election seasons specifically to kill mailed in ballots.
This isn’t relevant, even when we’ve been slammed local offices separate the ballots and bring them to a hub or county seat if it’s within a week of an election. Postal workers actually care about doing their jobs.
It isn’t relevant, yet, but we’re seeing changes in how these things are made to work that are decidedly deleterious to the reliability of mail in voting, and you’re deluded if you think they’re going to stop now. Even questions of legality are at best peripheral to this administration, more interference WILL be coming, and it won’t be something that Postal workers simply caring about their jobs will be able to resolve.
Postal workers actually care about doing their jobs.
Next step will be to get rid of those people by any means possible…
There’s a sort of inertia within the organization, you both can’t get rid of those people nor make them care more than they currently do. I think management has been trying to kill them off for decades. :)
people should be filing thier taxes electronically , in this case.
oh don’t get me started. they just took away freefile.
Here in Colorado we vote by mail, in person or, relevant to this development, we are allowed to drop a ballot into an actual ballot container. It’s like a mailbox but only unlocked during elections.
Great for suburbanites like me but in rural districts might be a bit of a hike.
Have the same thing out here in California.
i heard colorado, i is largely resistant to the change.
Our governor is pretty much an asshole but yeah, he’s standing up to Trump a little.
Thing is, he can’t do anything about the USPS
Most states offer early voting as well, up to 2 weeks before election day. I always recommend that as the BEST option. It allows you to vote in person and it’s almost always empty. Find a time convenient for you, go in, get your ballot, vote, leave. 5 minute process max.
probably not feasible if its a red state, they do everything to suppress voters. but in red districts for red voters they make it super easy.
Vote early, and vote often.
Transcription:
A post from bluesky stating “As of 12/24/25, USPS changed policy on when they postmark mail. Mail dropped off is no longer guaranteed a same-day postmark. Tax returns & other time-sensitive items are now stamped when they reach a regional processing center, which may be days later. Plan deadlines accordingly to avoid penalties.” Another user commented on the post “this seems specifically designed to break mail-in voting (where deadlines are defined by postmark)”.
this seems specifically designed to break mail-in voting
This is specifically for doing that. Processing centers will be understaffed in heavily Democratic areas, Republican strongholds will have mail that magically gets a stamp fifteen nanoseconds later. Republicans can literally not win without resorting to cheating.
They don’t even need to understaff them, that shit is all automated these days. Just manufacture a breakdown and voila.
remember dejoy destroyed most of the sorters in 2020, and then did next to nothing for the next 4 years. it was his sole purpose for being chosen, i dont think he was suppose to last that long.
This isn’t technically new, mail doesn’t get a postmark stamp unless it’s collected over the retail counter by clerks, and usually only on regular stamped mail (non-metered). If you had your mail in your mailbox with the flag up and is picked up by your carrier, it goes directly on the truck to the regional sorting facility and is processed and stamped there. Unless your mail comes directly from a regional sorting facility, it is not stamped at your local office if not handed in over the counter.
However, with election ballots, we are instructed to have them separate from other outgoing mail, regardless of when it’s picked up to be kept in office and delivered to the town hall/voting location the following day. This is the case with all 3 offices I’ve worked at, in 2 different regional areas. Only exception is if they’re absentee ballots for other towns.
Definitely drop a ballot off directly if you’re cutting it close to election day to make absolutely sure it’s counted in time though, and obviously, VOTE.
Please vote irl if feasible .
yea we do that, finish the ballot drops in person. in blue states its much easier to do that, red ones will make sure its impossible or very difficult to do.
you can tell if they want you to vote if they have one line or two.
The funny thing is they think Democrats are more using the mailing system. I’m pretty sure it’s all of the older Republicans and Republicans in general that use the mail-in system far more. This is only going to hurt their base even more.
Majorly affects anyone who mails their tax forms
Like dejoy would do something like that …. Oh wait. Yes. Yes he would do something like that to appease daddy Trump and president musk.
he got replaced by another DEJOY clone.
This is also making the mail less reliable. The mail is a vital piece of the functioning of the country but they want to privatize it
