The U.S. Postal Service is warning its customers in Oregon and across the nation that their mail may no longer be postmarked the day they drop it in a mailbox or at their local post office.
The Postal Service says customers who are sending time-sensitive items that need a postmark that same day — including mail-in ballots sent on Election Day and tax returns that must be sent by April 15 to avoid penalties — should bring them to their post office’s retail counter and ask an employee to postmark them.
Many institutions that formerly relied on postmarks to establish when documents were mailed say the change, which the Postal Service codified Dec. 24, is significant. It can have repercussions for members of the public if they don’t take heed — from ballots not being counted, to the IRS or the state Department of Revenue assessing penalties for tax returns that arrive late, to retailers refusing to accept returned mailed-in merchandise because it wasn’t postmarked within the company’s required return window.
The Postal Service’s website isn’t naming affected post offices. Neither did USPS spokesperson Janella Herron when The Oregonian/OregonLive asked Monday whether the postmark delays are affecting customers in Oregon’s population centers, such as Portland, Salem, Eugene or Bend.
But it appears the delays will be most common outside the Portland area because Herron said there’s only one processing center in Oregon that postmarks letters — and that’s in Portland. That means mail must travel hundreds of miles in some cases before it’s postmarked.
The change is part of cost-cutting measures that the Postal Service, which has existed in one form or another for the past 250 years, is undergoing to survive a massive reduction over the past few decades in the volume of letters and packages mailed.
Why isn’t the Postal Service saying where customers can expect delays in postmarks?
In a December update to its “Change in Service Standards — FAQ,” the Postal Service said it was declining to provide a list of post offices that might be subject to postmark delays because it “does not want customers to attach unwarranted significance to that designation.”
If that sounds like a confusing explanation, the Postal Service further added that whether it takes an extra day for an item to receive a postmark “does not determine” the days it takes for that item to reach its destination.” In some cases, it may take longer for an item to reach its destination, but it’s also possible that it may take less time than it used to, the agency said.
When did the Postal Service stop postmarking mail on the same day?
It’s unclear. Herron, the USPS spokesperson, didn’t answer that question in a response to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The Postal Service, however, said in its December update that it “has never guaranteed that the postmark date would align with the date of mailing” but wants “to provide a clearer understanding to our customers about the postmark and what it means.”
That said, it appears the changes occurred over the past few years.
As the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings think tank stated in an extensive Dec. 30 report, same-day postmarks used to be “routine” rather than “exceptional” under USPS’ old system.
Why is USPS delaying postmarking on some mail?
According to USPS, the change is part of a new system called “Regional Transportation Optimization,” meant to tighten the agency’s budget and reduce fossil fuels.
As part of its optimization plan, the agency is now picking up mail only once per day instead of twice per day from post offices that are more than 50 miles from a Regional Processing and Distribution Center, where it’s trucked to and postmarked. Mail at nearly 12,000 post offices nationwide that used to be picked up in the morning and evening is now only picked up in the morning, according to Save The Post Office, a website created by a retired English professor whose New England post office was facing closure 15 years ago.
In July 2023, the Postal Service approved more than $34 million for one of the first “Regional Processing and Distribution Centers” in the nation in Portland, which overhauled the way mail is processed. The facility opened in February 2024, and all of Oregon’s letters that aren’t postmarked at post office retail counters upon customer request are now trucked to and postmarked at the facility, according to USPS’ spokesperson.
As of December, according to Save The Post Office there were 60 “Regional Processing and Distribution Centers” across the nation.
What specific problems are the delays causing in Oregon?
Last November, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office stressed to voters that they must get their ballots in early because of changes to the Postal Service’s postmark system. Secretary of State Tobias Read said ballots mailed within five days of Election Day might not be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Nov. 4, the deadline for the ballots to be valid.
In the days before the deadline, Read advised voters who hadn’t mailed their ballots yet to drop them off at a ballot box.
Monday, Read expressed his ongoing concern, in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“I’m deeply concerned that USPS is doubling down on making it harder for Oregonians, especially rural Oregonians, to vote,” Read said. “We’re already taking action, providing updated guidance to make sure every legal vote gets counted, and we’ll continue to sound the alarm: this is a threat to Oregonians’ right to hold government accountable.”
In 2024, the latest figures available, more than 5,000 ballots statewide were rejected because they weren’t postmarked on time.
“That’s not an insignificant number, especially in a close race,” said Secretary of State spokesperson Tess Seger, in an email.
The Postal Service said there’s a solution: Voters should mail their ballots at least one week early. By using that “commonsense measure,” USPS said “the timing of the postmark should not be an issue.”
On top of that, the Postal Service indicated that ballots mailed for general elections in November on even-numbered years, when there are federal offices up for vote, will be postmarked by hand at local postal sites. The Postal Service said it will continue to do so “as part of our extraordinary measures.”
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