That dilemma stems from newly proposed USPS rules that seek to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump signed this spring to crack down on mail-in voting. If courts let the order stand, it would give the federal government an unprecedented role in elections — and could put even more voter data in the hands of Trump officials searching for supposed election fraud.
Postmarking no longer counts towards the deadline of things like tax returns, I am guessing voting as well.
Mail in ballots still require postmarks edit, unless you’re dropping them off by hand. That’s an incorrect guess and a misunderstanding of postmarks.
Your tax returns are considered timely if you hand them over to the USPS by the deadline. The postmark date was used as evidence to this point. The USPS clarified that postmarking wouldn’t be happening until your mail arrived at sorting facilities, so even if you technically dropped it in a blue box on the right date it may not get postmarked til later. That’s not really a change; obviously there are no little people employed to hide inside and stamp mail you drop in a hole. There’s also a last collection time written on all the boxes. However, distances between collection points and sorting facilities is increasing and transportation in some cases is getting less frequent. Also operations is less well staffed and the policy announcement is masking operational delays. As always if you want something stamped with the date you go to the window at a post office before they close.