The U.S. Postal Service is losing more of the public's trust that it will deliver mail-in ballots on time, a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds.
While the majority of registered voters still say they feel confident or very confident about timely USPS deliveries of election mail to voters and election officials, that share dropped 13 percentage points over the past two years — from 71% in 2024 to 58% this year. Trust in the Postal Service's on-time delivery of election mail has returned to levels last seen in the fall of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new survey finding comes shortly after a Supreme Court ruling blocked the Trump administration from using the mailing agency to restrict voting by mail for the midterm elections.
That decision came on Sept. 14; this national poll of 1,280 voters was conducted Sept. 14 to 15 in English and Spanish. It has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, meaning results could be about 4 points higher or lower.
Following the ruling, USPS is expected to keep delivering election mail as originally planned, including putting in place its "extraordinary measures" policy for speeding up the delivery of general-election ballots beginning a week before Election Day.
In a statement, USPS says it delivered more than 233 million pieces of election mail this fiscal year through the end of August, with an on-time score of 97.94%.
"There has been a lot of misinformation recently about the Postal Service's role in the electoral process, which may have had an impact on public sentiment. But the Postal Service's actual performance metrics speak for themselves," the statement says. "Postal employees take great pride in their responsibility to support the democratic process."
In recent decades, the self-funded mailing agency has struggled to keep up with its legal mandate to deliver mail at least six days a week to almost every address in the United States.
With people and businesses sending less first-class mail — its most revenue-generating service — USPS began a controversial 10-year restructuring plan in 2021. The cost-cutting efforts have led to longer expected delivery times and lowered service-performance goals that USPS has been unable to fully reach, a recent Government Accountability Office report found.
The agency's ongoing reorganization has also affected when mail gets a postmark, which is often used to determine whether a mail-in ballot was sent on time. In Washington state, for example, that change led to 19 counties seeing their rate of ballots rejected due to late postmarks more than double for this year's primary election compared with 2024, according to a report released by Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.
This month, the USPS Office of Inspector General concluded that despite making major changes to its delivery network, USPS has not improved its financial position and has disproportionately affected rural communities, risking the loss of "customers who perceive the service as inequitable, which could harm its brand and reputation, and adversely affect revenue."
A partisan divide on mail voting remains, as most voters expect a fair and accurate midterm election
The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll also found a continuing partisan divide in voters' views about mail-in voting.
Democratic voters (32%) are more likely than Republican voters (12%) and independent voters (26%) to say they will vote by mail in this year's general election.
And Republicans (70%) are more likely than Democrats (18%) and independents (32%) to say that they think there is a great deal or good amount of fraud when people are given the option to vote by mail.
President Trump — who votes by mail — has long claimed, without evidence, that mail voting is "corrupt." A 2025 review by the Brookings Institution, however, found mail-voting fraud to be exceptionally rare.
According to the new poll, the majority of registered voters overall (55%) say they believe there is little or no fraud when mail-in voting is available.
Most voters (75%) also report they feel confident that their state or local government will run a fair and accurate election for the midterms. That's up from 69% of registered voters polled in March.
Editor's note: The U.S. Postal Service is a financial supporter of NPR.
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
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