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If you want to vote by mail please do so as soon as you can and consider dropping it off at the counter where they will postmark it right away.
Also if you live in a state where you’re allowed to photograph your ballot consider doing so to have proof you voted a certain way.
Note that as a counterpoint the federal register website claims they are just clarifying language to improve public understanding: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/12/2025-15266/postmarks-and-postal-possession
I didn’t check that document very closely yet.
How is that different from your current system, though? Couldn’t the same postal worker just delay the stamping by one day, or stamp tomorrows date onto today’s letters?
The advantage of our system is, that we know the results in the night of the election. How would that work if letters arriving a week later would still count? On the other hand, we don’t have such a huge problem with voter suppression as the US: No gerrymandering, no need to register to vote, polling stations are accessible at reasonable times without long queues etc.
Please don’t imagined this couldn’t happen. Germany is not without active political threats. When a system can be abused it’s only a meter of time before it is.
The difference is that in a system where the standard is set to postmarked upon arrival it requires an active deviation from protocol that is more discoverable and potentially an illegal offense. It’s not bullet proof, but more difficult to manipulate intentionally or unintentionally on a large scale.
Intentionally delaying a mailing is already a crime in itself. And if you already have the power to shut down a mailing hub for a day or two without abyone noticing, I don’t see how it would be more difficult to change the date in the stamping machine.
I have no doubt that, when the Nazis come to power here as well, they will use all measures to suppress free voting. We of all people know how that works. But in that case, using the stamping date for mail-in voting won’t stop them anyway, as that’s a simple law, that can simply be changed by the people in power. Case in point: This very article about changing the postmark application rules. It seems, they didn’t even have to change a law for that, just some USPS internal guidelines.
how is what different than whos current system? i merely just gave a quick idea for how this one could be open to abuse and am making zero claims for any sort of postal system being better/worse than any other
The US system, using the date of the stamp instead of the arrival date. Neither system is safe from abuse. It’s just different.
Mail-in voting is inherently more error prone than voting in person. That’s why it’s important to make in person voting as accessible as possible. Voting on a Sunday, having plentiful accessible polling stations without significant waiting time surely helps, and is a reason why the share of voting by mail is traditionally way lower here in Germany than in the US. I never had to wait for more than 2 minutes at a polling station here in Germany.
Have a nice new year’s eve and guten Rutsch, as we say here.