Postcards About Mail-In Voting Create Confusion

Early voting is underway for the 2020 election. And, of course, everyone's expecting a surge in mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic.

When it comes to mail-in voting, different states have different rules. And tracking ballots can get confusing.

The U.S. Postal Service did a thing to try to make things easier for voters, but the message hasn't exactly been well-received. It sent out a postcard with some general tips on how to vote by mail, which gave specific information on when to request mail-in ballots and when to return them.

What's the problem? Well, for one thing, different states have different deadlines. And some states automatically send ballots out. So, the specifics on the postcards don't universally make sense. But the postcards did include a note about how rules and dates vary by state.

This past weekend, a federal judge in Colorado temporarily blocked the Postal Service from sending the postcards. According to Politifact, the Postal Service says it's trying to comply with that order.