Mail your ballot today

The USPS advises mailing your ballot by today, October 29, to ensure timely delivery. Ideally, ballots should be sent at least a week before Election Day for reliable arrival. Recent USPS data on election mail shows impressive performance: 99.9% of ballots—both those sent from election officials to voters and returned from voters to officials—were delivered within a week. Outbound ballots typically reached voters in two days, and 98.3% of inbound ballots (from voters to election officials) arrived within three days, with an average delivery time of one day.

Starting October 21, the USPS implemented “Extraordinary Measures” to expedite ballot handling. These enhancements include additional deliveries, special pickups, specialized sorting plans at processing facilities, and direct ballot transportation to election boards. The USPS reaffirms its capacity to handle election mail in the final week effectively.

Reflecting on 2020 performance, USPS delivered 99.89% of ballots within seven days, 97.9% within three days, and 99.7% within five days. On average, it took 2.1 days for ballots to reach voters and 1.6 days for ballots to return to officials. Given that ballot mail comprises only 0.11% of USPS’s total volume, the Postal Service is well-prepared for successful ballot delivery by November 5.