{"id":56,"date":"2026-10-29T22:06:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T22:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/?p=56"},"modified":"2026-10-29T22:06:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T22:06:49","slug":"drop-your-ballot-off-dont-mail-it-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/2026\/10\/29\/drop-your-ballot-off-dont-mail-it-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Drop Your Ballot Off, Don’t Mail It In"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The time has now come for a piece of cautionary advice for how to vote in the upcoming midterm elections: Don’t<\/em> mail your ballot in — drop it off instead.<\/p>\n

I say this not because I for one minute buy into any of Donald Trump’s delusional lies about mail-in ballot fraud, but because of where we are on the calendar. There simply isn’t enough time left<\/em> to guarantee that mailing in your ballot will automatically equate to it arriving on time and being properly counted (instead of disqualified). So you should use a different method instead.<\/p>\n

I can’t give specific advice, because every state has their own election procedures. In most states there are multiple options for casting a ballot: mail-in voting, in-person early voting, drop-box voting, elections offices, and (of course) going “old school” and just showing up at the polls on Election Day. Other than that last one, all the rest allow for voters to vote early in various ways. If you have a ballot that you received in the mail, you are likely able to either put it in a secure drop box, walk in to an in-person early voting site and just hand it in, or drop it off at your county’s elections office. If you don’t already have a ballot, then in-person early voting is likely your only choice to vote earlier than Election Day.<\/p>\n

But it’s now just too late to drop your ballot in the mail with any degree of confidence. This was detailed<\/a> in a recent ProPublica<\/em> report that showed a much higher degree of ballots arriving late (in the mail) to elections offices in this year’s primaries. The article starts with a warning signal to voters:<\/p>\n

In early August, election workers north of Spokane, Washington, went across the street to the post office to check for late mail-in ballots. It was three days after the primary and they were expecting no more than a few dozen.<\/p>\n

Instead, their mailbox was brimming with envelopes — more than 500 of them, each a vote that wouldn’t count. The sight was “jarring,” said Auditor Lori Larsen, a Republican who oversees voting in Stevens County.<\/p>\n

Across the region, other election officials were getting similar jolts. In the 11 predominately rural counties in eastern Washington, nearly 2,000 ballots came in late, compared to about 600 in 2022, the previous midterm primary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article then provides one big reason for all the delayed ballots, which is that the U.S. Postal Service completely changed how it handles mail, especially<\/em> from non-urban areas. Instead of getting postmarked at the post office that first handles the ballot, it is sent by truck (with only one trip each day, in most rural areas) to a processing center (usually near or in a big city). This can cause a delay of one or more days before the ballot is even postmarked. And the postmark can be crucial on a ballot.<\/p>\n

The whole article should serve as a wake-up call for any voter who doesn’t already live in a big city. And that means a whole lot of very red areas, as the article points out:<\/p>\n

Across the five states, the delays have had the most substantial effect in areas that voted for Trump in 2024, ProPublica<\/em>‘s analysis shows. In Washington, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said he sees the service changes directed by Republican appointees leading the Postal Service as a way to undermine mail-in voting.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think they realized how much it was going to affect their voter base,” he said, adding that Washington has “a lot of rural Republican voters.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, they shot themselves in the foot, in a big way.<\/p>\n

Democrats are already getting a lot warier about voting by mail. Understandably, their fears also don’t match all the conspiracy theories Trump spouts but rather are based on distrust of the postal system after it was so radically changed by a Trump-appointed leader. HuffPost<\/em> has an article today which examines this new trend<\/a> in depth. It shows that Democrats have already changed their voting habits for this year’s election:<\/p>\n

Among Democrats, mail voting is down and early in-person voting is up, a notable shift from other post-COVID elections.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

“It is clear that Democrats are voting more in person and less by mail,” said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic political strategist who tracks the early vote. “We’re seeing new voting habits emerge.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In state after state, elections officials are reporting that early mail-in voting rates are down (especially among Democrats) while in-person early voting rates have risen. This is seen as an encouraging sign, but every vote that is cast early means a vote that won’t happen on Election Day. It is impossible to predict what the outcome of any election will be just from a shift in voting patterns, in other words.<\/p>\n

What all of this is going to mean next Tuesday is that watching the votes get counted may be a little different this year. If rural votes are disqualified at a high rate (because of late postmarks or delivery of mail-in ballots), that may depress the overall Republican vote. And with Democrats using other early voting methods rather than the post office, when<\/em> their votes are counted will shift as well, as the article points out:<\/p>\n

A huge factor in Trump’s election fraud lies has been the Blue Shift that occurs when mail ballots are counted after the polls close. Since mail ballots tilt heavily to Democrats, votes for Republicans are often counted early, creating a perception that they are leading. When Democratic mail ballots are counted, the vote shifts in Democrats’ favor. Trump has claimed, falsely, that this is evidence of fraud.<\/p>\n

But a trend toward early in-person voting is likely to create a smaller Blue Shift, although still noticeable, on election night. That could act as a wet blanket for Trump’s inevitable lies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One can only hope.<\/p>\n

In any case, no matter what happens on Election Day, anyone who wants to cast their ballot early should still be encouraged to do so. Early voting avoids last-minute emergencies and safely “banks” your vote.<\/p>\n

But at this point, it is too late to trust the post office with your ballot. So if you’ve filled your ballot out and want to vote early, please consider using another method to do so. Drop it in a drop box, if one is available where you live. Or make the effort to take it to an early-voting site or the county courthouse. Or go vote at one of those early-voting sites in person. That way you will be absolutely sure that your vote will be counted, instead of sitting around in some huge postal warehouse gathering dust until it turns into a pumpkin and is disqualified.<\/p>\n

— Chris Weigant<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow Chris on Twitter: <\/em>@ChrisWeigant<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The time has now come for a piece of cautionary advice for how to vote in the upcoming midterm elections: Don’t mail your ballot in — drop it off instead. I say this not because I for one minute buy into any of Donald Trump’s delusional lies about mail-in ballot fraud, but because of where…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrisweigant.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}