Mail-in voting needs national standards

As more jurisdictions expand mail-in voting options, the United States Postal Service issued a warning this month that states are being unreasonable in the lax deadlines they are setting for mail-in ballots to be sent out and returned. Congress should take this opportunity to set new federal standards for mail-in voting that will return stability and credibility to our electoral system.

In the agency’s 2024 Post-Election Analysis Report, the Postal Service reported it processed more than 99.2 million ballots during this year’s general election. The average delivery time for ballots was just one day, 98% of ballots were delivered within three days, and 99% were delivered within a week, according to the report.