By Grant Fredericks — The LeClaire Report
On June 29 the Supreme Court ruled that federal law lets a state count a mailed ballot as long as it is postmarked by Election Day, even when it arrives days later.1 When the Court heard arguments in the mail-in ballot case in March, Jerry LeClaire and I reported the case as it was presented to the court.2 The ruling yesterday is a real win for mail voting. However, for the rural counties of Washington’s Fifth Congressional District it changes very little, because under separate postal rules a lawful ballot can be mailed before Election Day and still not be counted.
The Postal Rule The Supreme Court Never Considered
The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, answered a narrow question. By a vote of five to four, the Court ruled that federal law lets a state count ballots postmarked by Election Day even when they arrive in the days after the election. Republicans argued that a ballot had to be received by Election Day, not merely postmarked and mailed by then.3 Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote that the electorate’s choice ‘is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received.’4 The Court treated the casting of the ballot as the act that must happen by Election Day, and left the deadline for receipt to the states. Washington, like Mississippi, treats a mailed ballot as timely when it bears an Election Day postmark.5 For many rural voters, that postmark requirement could be subject to delays outside the voter’s control.
That problem stems from two recent USPS policy changes. On December 24, 2025, the Trump administration’s Postal Service redefined the postmark. A mailed item is now postmarked on the date it reaches an automated processing facility, not the date the sender actually drops it in the mailbox.6 For all of Eastern Washington, that facility is a single building, the regional processing center on South Spotted Road in Spokane.7 On April 1, 2025, the Postal Service slowed the mail that funnels through it, adding a day for mail sent from offices more than fifty-miles by road from a regional center. It also ended evening collection at those offices, so outgoing mail now waits overnight for the next morning’s truck.8 A ballot handed to a clerk in Republic or Colville on Election Day afternoon does not move that night. It reaches Spokane the next day, or later, and is postmarked there, after Election Day. Washington election law has not changed. The state still requires an Election Day postmark. A late ballot is rejected.9 The delay is the calculus of federal postal rules.
The Fifty-Mile Rule
The Postal Service flags ZIP codes to slow mail delivery when the sender is more than fifty-miles by road from the Spokane center.10 This rule disproportionately impacts WA-5 rural communities. Many post offices in the WA-5 fall on the far side of the fifty-mile barrier. To name a few: in Ferry County every community is outside the ‘save zone’, and ballots mailed from those offices on Election Day will be delayed. In Lincoln County: Harrington, Creston, Wilbur, Almira, Odessa and other communities will lose ballots mailed on Election Day. So too will ballots mailed on Election Day from Chewelah, Kettle Falls, Northport, Addy and other communities in Stevens County.
Plan Ahead or Lose Your Vote
Most voters will simply drop the ballot in the mailbox. If that is you, do not wait until Election Day. In many of WA-5’s rural communities a ballot mailed on August 4 can be postmarked after the deadline, and once that happens nothing can fix it.
Plan to mail your ballot no later than Friday, July 31, so it is postmarked by Election Day, August 4.11
Endnotes
1. Watson v. Republican National Committee, No. 24-1260, slip op. (U.S. June 29, 2026) (5 to 4): the federal election-day statutes do not require ballots to be received by Election Day, so a state may count ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward. Opinion of the Court: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1260_g3cn.pdf. Coverage: CBS News, June 29, 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-mail-ballots-mississippi-law-watson-v-rnc/.
2. Jerry LeClaire and Grant Fredericks, “The Mail and the Midterms: Ballots at Risk,” Indivisible--The High Ground, March 23, 2026, https://jerrysindivisible.substack.com/p/the-mail-and-the-midterms-ballots.
3. The Court held, by a vote of five to four, that nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots to be received by Election Day; the Republican challengers had argued that a ballot must be received by Election Day, not merely cast or postmarked by then. Watson v. RNC, slip op. (June 29, 2026); Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, “Supreme Court Decides Watson v. Republican National Committee et al.,” June 2026, https://www.faegredrinker.com/en/insights/publications/2026/6/supreme-court-decides-watson-v-republican-national-committee-et-al; SCOTUSblog, “Justices uphold state law allowing for late-arriving mail-in ballots,” June 29, 2026, https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/justices-uphold-state-law-allowing-for-late-arriving-mail-in-ballots/.
4. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Opinion of the Court, Watson v. RNC, No. 24-1260, slip op. at 7 (Part II.B): “The electorate’s choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received.” https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1260_g3cn.pdf.
5. Washington requires a mailed ballot to be postmarked no later than Election Day, or returned to a drop box by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day, to be counted. RCW 29A.40.110, https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=29A.40.110. Mississippi’s law at issue in Watson likewise treats a ballot as timely when “postmarked on or before the date of the election.” Miss. Code Ann. §23-15-637, described in Watson v. RNC, slip op. at 1 to 2.
6. USPS Domestic Mail Manual, Section 608.11, “Postmarks and Postal Possession,” effective December 24, 2025: a machine-applied postmark reflects the date of first automated processing at a facility, not the date the item was deposited. Final rule, Federal Register, November 24, 2025, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/24/2025-20740/postmarks-and-postal-possession. See also CNN, December 31, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/31/politics/usps-postmark-rule-change-mail-in-ballots; Brookings Institution, “When a postmark no longer tracks mailing,” https://www.brookings.edu/articles/when-a-postmark-no-longer-tracks-mailing/.
7. The Spokane Processing and Distribution Center, 2928 S. Spotted Rd., Spokane, WA 99224, processes mail for all of Eastern Washington (ZIP prefixes 990 through 994) and North Idaho. “Equipment upgrades to USPS facility in Spokane boosts efficiency,” The Spokesman-Review, December 4, 2022, https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/dec/04/equipment-upgrades-to-usps-facility-in-spokane-boo/; USPS, “USPS Highlights State-of-the-Art Package Sorting Machines, Holiday Season Readiness in Spokane,” November 26, 2025, https://about.usps.com/newsroom/local-releases/wa/2025/1126-usps-highlights-holiday-season-readiness-in-spokane.htm. Under the Delivering for America plan, regional processing centers handle all originating mail for their region. USPS Office of Inspector General, “What are the Postal Service’s plans for the new network?,” https://www.uspsoig.gov/focus-areas/did-you-know/what-are-postal-services-plans-new-network.
8. USPS implemented Phase 1 of its Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) on April 1, 2025. For Post Offices more than fifty miles by road from a regional processing center, end-of-day collection was discontinued and one day was added to service standards, so outgoing mail waits overnight for the next morning’s pickup. USPS, “USPS Is Enhancing Service Standards,” March 20, 2025, https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2025/0320-usps-is-enhancing-service-standards.htm; U.S. Government Accountability Office, B-338071 (RTO implemented nationwide April 1, 2025; mail dropped more than fifty miles from a regional hub collected the next day), https://www.gao.gov/products/b-338071; Save the Post Office, “Understanding the new USPS service standards and how they apply to your ZIP Code,” March 2, 2025, https://www.savethepostoffice.com/understanding-the-new-usps-service-standards-and-how-they-apply-to-your-zip-code/.
9. A Washington ballot must be received by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day or postmarked no later than Election Day; a ballot with a late postmark is rejected. RCW 29A.40.110, https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=29A.40.110; Washington Secretary of State, “Frequently Asked Questions on Voting by Mail” (“A late postmark means your ballot will not be counted”), https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/voters/helpful-information/frequently-asked-questions-voting-mail.
10. USPS applies the slower RTO standard to a five-digit ZIP code when a Post Office in it lies more than fifty miles by road from its servicing regional processing center. USPS-LR-N2024-1-1, “RTO Determination Based on Distance from RPDC,” Docket No. N2024-1 (rev. November 12, 2024); Postal Regulatory Commission, Advisory Opinion, Docket No. N2024-1, https://www.prc.gov/sites/default/files/Advisory-Opinion.pdf. Community status was confirmed against the fifty-mile road standard by measuring road distance from each Post Office to 2928 S. Spotted Rd., Spokane; communities well beyond the line were confirmed by straight-line distance, which is necessarily shorter than the road distance.
11. To be counted, a Washington ballot must be deposited in an official ballot drop box by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day or postmarked no later than Election Day; the Postal Service recommends mailing at least a week before the deadline. RCW 29A.40.110, https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=29A.40.110; RCW 29A.40.170 (drop boxes secured at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day), https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=29A.40.170; Washington Secretary of State, “Frequently Asked Questions on Voting by Mail” (USPS recommends mailing at least one week before Election Day), https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/voters/helpful-information/frequently-asked-questions-voting-mail.
Agreed …
Good to know, thanks Grant.
You might mention that instead of mailing one's ballot, there are ballot dropboxes, often at public libraries, where ballots can be dropped on election day, when it's too late to mail them.