I grew up in the post office. My father, John Metsger, was the postmaster of what was, in 1959, a rural outpost known as Sandy, Oregon. Population — barely nudging 1,000.

 

I would watch as Mrs. Wesselink or her daughter, Kay, would sort through the incoming mail and postmark every piece by hand. Local mail would go right back into a wall of slots for George Burg or one of the other carriers to deliver the next day. The rest would go in large duffle bags to be picked up and delivered to Portland for sorting to destinations near and far. One-day local delivery was routine.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these

couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”

• Unofficial motto, U.S. Postal Service

Today, as the calendar creeps closer to Election Day on Nov. 3, tossing your ballot in the mail is a game of Russian Roullet. Mrs. Wesselink isn’t there anymore to guarantee your vote will be counted.

 

Democrats have long decried changes to the U.S. Postal Service as an effort to suppress votes. Republicans counter that the changes are designed to help stem the red ink from the USPS that has sent costs soaring and revenue declining.

 

Ironically, new data appears to suggest that it is Republican voters most at risk of not having their mail-in-ballots counted.

 

Whether you live in Sandy, Corvallis, or hundreds of miles away in Lakeview or Burns, the USPS’ new rules for Regional Transportation Optimization, or RTO, send ballots on a Magical Mystery Tour before arriving at local election offices.

 

Take Lakeview, for example. Under RTO, if you drop your ballot in a collection box at 4 p.m. on Friday, it will not be picked up until Monday. Then it will be trucked (after making multiple stops along the way) to Portland, some 348 miles away for sorting at the Portland Regional Processing Center.

 

There, it will be sent through machines and only then given a postmark — often three or four days after you mailed your ballot. A carrier pigeon can deliver that same mail from 348 miles in about six hours.

 

But wait, there’s more! Then it will be trucked all the way back to Lakeview to be counted at the county clerk’s office, less than half a mile from where it was dropped in the mail the previous week.

 

Because rural voters lean heavily Republican, it is their ballots most likely not to be counted if mailed too close to election day, a potentially significant factor in a razor thin election. According to data compiled by ProPublica, rejection rates for late postmarked ballots have doubled or tripled what they were four years ago, especially in rural areas.

 

In the 30 mostly rural counties in Washington state, the number of rejected ballots for late postmarks tripled in this year’s primary election from 2022. In Garfield County, one out of 10 ballots was rejected for late postmarks. In Stevens County, rejected ballots rose from 1% in 2022 to 8% this year.

 

Garfield County has a 49% edge of Republican voters over Democratic voters. Stevens County has a 35% Republican edge. Lake County, Oregon voted 81% for Trump in 2024.

 

In Oregon, 7,314 ballots were rejected in this year’s primary due to a late postmark. Central Oregon had almost 500 ballots rejected. That is why Secretary of State Tobias Read and other election officials are pleading with voters to use drop boxes rather than USPS. Duck, drop, and you’re covered. Postmarks are not a factor in drop boxes as all are collected before the 8 p.m. voting deadline on Tuesday.

 

In 2024, Oregon voters used drop boxes 60.2% of the time while USPS handled one-third of the vote, or 33.1%.

 

The drop box option has grown in popularity over the years as the USPS service has slowly declined. Not Pony Express slow, but the trajectory is concerning.

 

USPS says it has plans to improve reliability this election, but many election observers are skeptical.

 

Voters who have procrastinated still have an option. Like with Mrs. Wesselink from days gone by, voters can still walk up to the counter at their local post office during business hours and request the counter clerk for an old-fashioned hand-stamped postmark then and there. It will still be sent to Portland but the date will be recorded.

 

If the Oregon Governor’s race is as close as some have suggested, and Washington’s 3rd Congressional District is indeed razor thin, then every vote will make a difference. Make yours count! Hand-stamp or hand-drop. Hands down, the only way to be sure.