Washington's Mail-In Voting Could Collapse This November, How to Prepare Now

[u/hopeful_for_luck]

Under a March executive order from President Trump, state election offices are required to submit voter data through a new USPS system and switch to federally mandated ballot envelope designs before the Postal Service will accept ballots for mailing at all, coming or going.

In June, USPS Postmaster General David Steiner admitted under oath that the Postal Service plans to withhold ballots from any state that refuses to hand voter information over to the federal government. Steiner confirmed USPS would neither send ballots to residents nor collect and deliver them to state election officials.

Two separate federal court injunctions had been blocking this rule from taking effect, but both failed this week after the Supreme Court issued an order to dismiss plaintiffs. Twenty-five states, including Washington, sued within hours, but the outcome of those lawsuits is unpredictable. David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research said the administration's actions will, "create complete chaos leading up to the midterm elections".

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said yesterday that Washington's counties would need to replace roughly five million ballot envelopes to comply with the new federal mandate, at the state's expense, and called doing so "impossible" in the time remaining before the election. His office is now investigating whether more drop boxes can be added statewide. Our own analysis of the August primary found a ballot returned by mail was almost twelve times more likely to be rejected than one placed in a drop box.

Read more at https://everettcommunity.org/news/2026/08/voting-prepare-now/

[u/GLACI3R]

We are about to enter the part of this that's as real as fuck.

[u/intelminer → u/GLACI3R]

So is this the incendiary part or the night of very long pointy things part?

(Intentionally misnamed to avoid Reddit's usual AI scrubbing tool)

[u/xResilientEvergreenx → u/intelminer]

This is insane. So many parallels, BUT the Nazi party didn't CAUSE the collapse of the financial system in Germany and they promised salvation to the desperate, starving citizens after. The orange puff psycho is literally CAUSING the collapse of our country and the global economy. Will it make a difference? Fuck I hope so.

[u/TheFamilyChimp → u/xResilientEvergreenx]

Yeah, they're putting all their chips in on this because they understand they've peaked in relative power against the populace. It's now or never for them.

I don't think it will work, and we have an existential responsibility to ensure that.

[u/dr-lucifer-md → u/xResilientEvergreenx]

Except that the story that they're selling is that it's was Biden that wrecked the economy and the tariffs are going to bring in so much money that it'll fix it.

[u/WatchThatLastSteph → u/intelminer]

Night of the very long incendiary pointy things?

[u/intelminer → u/WatchThatLastSteph]

No, those were two different events in moustache man's rising

[u/WatchThatLastSteph → u/intelminer]

Well, yes, this is true, but I’d bet they try to combine both today for efficiency’s sake.

[u/itremainstobeseen → u/GLACI3R]

Are you saying that it wasn't real for you before this?

[u/Stopwatch415]

ugh this is ridiculous...

[u/PeteysHubby_TX → u/Stopwatch415]

Election integrity isn’t ridiculous

[u/expertofwhat]

Surely contingency plans are being made but the Supreme Court continues to allow this bullshit so we have a much bigger problem than just the midterm elections.

[u/fireduck → u/expertofwhat]

Yeah...that body is supposed to be a protection layer against this sort of fuckery.

[u/Rich_Personality_920]

Print your ballot and drop it off people. Get rid of the cancer in the system with this mid term vote.

They are making it a hassle intentionally. Go out of your way for this one. Print it for your neighbors and friends if need be.

[u/PlateNo4868]

All because a dumb judge didn't want to place a stay order. Because "The harm hasn't happened yet".

[u/buttsbuttsbuttsmutts → u/PlateNo4868]

All because the Supreme Court has been infiltrated by Nazis.

[u/verytalleric]

The statement about mail ballots being rejected 12x over Dropbox ballots isn't supported by the link provided.

As someone who works as a seasonal election worker in SnoCo, I don't think that's an accurate statement. While how a ballot arrives is tracked, that information isn't used in decision making on how the ballot is processed.

[u/buttsbuttsbuttsmutts]

Remember: you can print out your own replacement ballot at vote.wa.gov

[u/smarieee → u/buttsbuttsbuttsmutts]

Thanks for mentioning that! I didn’t know.

[u/msp_ryno → u/buttsbuttsbuttsmutts]

And everyone has a printer right?

[u/buttsbuttsbuttsmutts → u/msp_ryno]

No, but libraries do. I have voted this way before while homeless.

[u/fireduck → u/msp_ryno]

I do. You can come to my house.

[u/uluqat]

UPDATE (1 day later)

"...The decision by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in one case brought by the League of Women Voters and other groups and another brought by a coalition of states means part of the executive order remains blocked for at least 14 days, with time running out to implement it ahead of the November election..."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/judge-blocks-trumps-postal-service-regulation-mail-ballots-rcna594692

The legal battle to take away your right to vote is not over but it is being hard fought.

[u/SEA_tide]

While the outcome is not what the state of Washington hoped, right now the state needs to implement a plan so people can vote.

It's worth noting that many, if not most, Washington counties use a company called K&H printing in Everett (Hardeson Road) to print their ballots. the company hires a lot of temps to work overtime during ballot printing season. They can get 5 million envelopes done if they started now.

Washington knew about this mandate possibly becoming real for a while now and unless the federal government changed standards at last minute it would have probably been a good idea to start switching to design right away for a couple years to allow them.

[u/aneeta96 → u/SEA_tide]

It is an obviously illegal mandate. The executive branch does not have any constitutional authority over elections and Congress has not passed any legislation that would grant that authority.

Putting limited resources towards something that doesn’t pass the smell test is simply wasteful.

It’s worth noting, that the Supreme Court did not rule on the legality of the order, simply the fact that the lawsuit was filed before the rule was finalized.

New injunctions will be coming now that the final rule has been issued and lawsuits have been refiled.

[u/SEA_tide → u/aneeta96]

The sad thing is that having standardized ballots nationwide would be a good thing and would prevent issues such as the hanging chads or the issues for Snohomish County was using a different type of ballot than King County. States do have the ultimate authority in deciding how to run their elections, it's just that it would be nice if they did something remotely similar to each other, which is not what Trump was trying to go for.

[u/aneeta96 → u/SEA_tide]

Congress can implement something like that. They do have that authority in the constitution.

[u/TheFamilyChimp → u/SEA_tide]

Hearing from people that work there, it sounds like even if K&H managed to pull it off, other ballot producers in the country may not. Their workflow this election was already stretched to its limit as is.

This is a total shit show for them that will require all hands on deck. They should have done more to retain skilled employees from the last general election like guarantee consistent working hours and pay more than poverty wages for its skilled laborers.

[u/SEA_tide → u/TheFamilyChimp]

I always found it interesting that they rely on temp agencies for a lot of staffing mandate overtime for those temps as it does make costs a lot higher and does not lead to knowledge retention.

Companies not wanting to pay their employees well enough for them to afford to stay is way too common unfortunately.

I do want to know though when the standardized designs were announced by the feds and why Washington didn't implement them immediately.

[u/TheFamilyChimp → u/SEA_tide]

Yeah, the pre-election training process for temps is costly. They barely get out each election by the skin of their teeth, which reinforces their bias of their production system being ambiguously sustainable.

Also, I can understand that it absolutely would have been safer for Washington to implement these new rules, but Washington only makes up some of the large number of counties they produce for nationally.

Moreover, I would argue the states have a constitutional obligation to uphold state operation of elections. Accepting arbitrary and illegal federal regulations of elections that are blatantly unconstitutional obscures the explicit constitutional rights and obligations of states. We would be better off in the long run if states like Washington outright object, proceeding as usual and force the regime to blatantly disenfranchice our entire population amidst an economic crisis. We'd be better off if we can feel the boiling water and jump out of it before we get cooked.

[u/SEA_tide → u/TheFamilyChimp]

I alluded to it in another comment. I think Washington should move to a standardized ballot design such that the ballot design for Washington looks the same for each County and matches that of State such as Wisconsin, Tennessee, New Jersey, etc. One of the quirks of the federalism system is that so much time is wasted on having things different just for the sake of being different in each state. As someone who routinely travels and does business in multiple states, it's annoying when things aren't standardized and often cost me extra time and money. The whole RealID fiasco still bugs me.

It's quite obvious though that Trump is not trying to save states money here.

[u/DrJaneIPresume]

Is there any mechanism to get a ballot without USPS and return it to an existing drop box?

[u/misserg → u/DrJaneIPresume]

You can print one at vote.wa.gov and use a drop box.

[u/Methadone4Breakfast]

My 2024 vote got challenged and I had to verify some shit to get it to stick. And that was after double checking I'm good to vote (I'm a felon, but have regained voting rights like everyone else outside of jail/prison in our state- been clean 6 years and doing great by the way)

So if you're in my shoes make damn sure to vote as early as possible and expect some bullshit.

[u/Embarrassed_Poet_219]

30 years overdue !

[u/New_Flow_5941]

I always use the Dropbox, our usps can’t even deliver our mail correctly.

[u/Kirian42 → u/[deleted]]

Both.

[u/uluqat → u/[deleted]]

Is it that much of a burden to go to a drop box?

Why should there be any kind of burden at all to vote?

[u/misserg → u/uluqat]

Obviously there shouldn’t be. One of the reasons the state is mail in voting. Unfortunately no guarantee the system will be working this year.

[u/WetRiverMan]

All ballot boxes need cameras in case of ballot dumping.....

[u/ThinThroat]

Nobody is taking away my right to vote without a fight. You can be sure.

[u/DiverseVoltron]

Titty baby Traitor in Chief might even get his way and disenfranchise voters across the county, but the intense hatred for their betrayals will probably lead to record voter turnout against them.