By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The head of the US Postal Service said Thursday the agency is "absolutely ready" to handle millions of ballots for the November 3 midterm elections that will determine control of the US Congress and other key races.
"Everybody is engaged and absolutely ready for the next two weeks," US Postmaster General David Steiner told reporters. Earlier this month, the Postal Service said it would take a series of "extraordinary measures" for the 2026 election,
including extending hours at some retail locations and expediting handling, extra deliveries and special pickups of ballots.
The extraordinary measures start October 24 "to expedite completed ballots to election offices during the final stretch of the election season," Steiner said, adding they include "local turnaround to bypass all processing when it's absolutely necessary to get ballots on time."
USPS said it was committed to delivering all ballots placed in the mail and voters should drop ballots in the mail at least a week before ballots are due to local officials.
On September 14, the US Supreme Court declined to let USPS enforce a rule targeting mail-in ballots, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump's effort to restrict voting by mail. USPS said it would not enforce the rule under the order.
The agency adopted the measure after Trump issued a March executive order aimed at tightening rules governing mail voting.
In 2024, USPS delivered 99.2 million ballots to and from voters in the presidential election. About 30% of votes were cast by mail in the November 2024 presidential election, down from 46% in 2020.
Trump's fellow Republicans are locked in a tight battle to retain control of Congress in the midterms. Restricting mail-in ballots would stand to benefit Republicans because Democratic voters disproportionately use mail-in ballots, according to various surveys.
Under the rule that was blocked, states would have had to provide lists of mail ballot recipients to USPS and use agency-approved outbound and return ballot mail envelopes outfitted with unique barcodes. The Postal Service could then have refused to send out ballots that did not comply or were associated with voters not appearing on the lists.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
