Shenanigans at my local USPS office - Heads up, people!

[MontanaMama]

Went in to my local post office this afternoon to do some parcel shipping. I've noticed that the station closest to my house recently removed 3 of the 4 outdoor drive up mail drop boxes and the main USPS station in the middle of my city has removed 4 of the 6 outdoor drive up drop boxes. The little station on the west side of town has gone from 4 drop boxes to 1. I asked the desk clerk if he had any intel on why this was happening. I was the only person at the desk and he said "How do I say this without getting political?" My response was "Get political, I'm here for it." He said "USPS doesn't want ballots." I said "For real?" He said "Yes and you didn't hear it from me."

There you have it. Take it for what it's worth. I live in blue Missoula, Montana. Of course they don't want our ballots. PLEASE make sure you have a voting plan. I do not believe we can count on our USPS any longer.

[bluestarone]

1. They did the same thing in my town, but

That was like 4 years ago. Really hard to find a mail box for awhile.

[wnylib]

39. They did that in the 2020 election.

Last edited Mon Mar 2, 2026, 10:00 PM - Edit history (1)

We overcame it by having drop boxes for ballots at poll sites.

[Alice Kramden]

2. KnR

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. That is absolutely horrifying. Cutting you off at the ballot box??? No way.

[MontanaMama]

4. Right??

I ALWAYS take my ballot to the voter office myself but so many people cannot. They do not want ballots in the mail. I wouldn't take the chance with my vote at this point. No way, no how.

[dem4decades]

5. I mailed out grandson's valentine's card on February 10th, he lives a half hour away.

He received his card on February 24th, postmarked on the 10th. If it was a vote instead of a card it wouldn't count anymore, right?

[MontanaMama]

10. No it wouldn't.

When I mail a card or letter to someone in my own city, often it goes 250 miles west to Spokane for a postmark and then back to Missoula for delivery. What sense does that make?

I'm sorry your grandson's valentine was late. Darn it.

[Tasmanian Devil]

27. Mail between PO boxes in our little town ... goes to Denver before getting delivered

I thought it was so stupid. And then I remembered that I get "USPS Informed Delivery". I.e. photos of my incoming mail before it's delivered.

They're routing mail to the large sorting stations so the outsides can get photographed.

I doubt that "Informed delivery" is the real reason. It's tracking and law enforcement.

[tonekat]

35. The Surveillance State hates Anonymity - N/T

[MichMan]

53. You had to sign up for informed delivery

If you are concerned with being tracked by law enforcement I recommend you get rid of it.

[Tasmanian Devil]

55. The monitoring will continue

Signing up for informed delivery just sends me a copy of the pix. It doesn't change whether or not the pix are taken and saved forever by the feds.

And I'm much more annoyed by the widespread use of license plate readers. I personally don't care much about the USPS logging what mail I receive.

[Demobrat]

41. I live in California. I got a Xmas card

mailed in Illinois in February.

[SheilaAnn]

45. My eldest son just received my Christmas card to him. Lives 40 mins. away. I do love Florida..LOL.

[Ms. Toad]

6. If your post office is like the ones around here -

There is no need for more than one drive-up drop box at any location other than tax day - and then they typically stand and collect the tax returns at the entrance.

[MontanaMama]

12. It is a city of 125,000

including the bedroom communities on the outskirts. 4 drive up boxes doesn't cut it. I have often seen mail spilling out of the drop boxes in the late afternoon.

[Ms. Toad]

20. Mine serves around 700,000

I've literally never waited behind even a single person in line to drop mail off, except for tax day.

[ShazzieB]

70. Yeah, our p.o. just has one big, giant dropbox plus a second, smaller one for "express mail."

I've never not been able to mail something there. I do miss having drop boxes at a variety of convenient locations around town, but I guess those days are over. :-/ People use mail a lot less than they used to, so I can understand why they don't want to have to make so many stops to pick up mail when there's probably only a few letters in each box.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

7. Can you deliver your ballots to your City/County Government Center?

When we voted in 2020, my husband dropped off our ballots to our County Government Center.

Minnesota has early in person voting at a designated polling place 6 weeks prior to the General Election up to the day before. Voting that way makes sure our vote is secured and safely paced.

[MontanaMama]

13. We can and do exactly that.

Unfortunately, lots of folks don't. I'm very worried that ballots won't even be delivered to voters let alone make it back to the voting office via USPS.

[pandr32]

51. That's an important point.

We've been worried about getting them in, post marked, and counted in time. What is we don't get them on time or at all?

[FuzzyDicePHL]

47. This is the way.

We never mail ours. Have long had a distrust in USPS when sending time-critical items.

Dropping off to a dropbox that's collected by your Board Of Elections is safer -- if you've got the option.

[spanone]

8. K&R

[hunter]

9. The problem in our town was smash-and-grab mail thefts.

Mailboxes were removed or replaced with more robust boxes.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. The outdoors drop boxes are subject to vandalism and theft.

I don't ever put anything important in an outdoors drop box. I always go inside to drop off a letter. My closest PO is in a bluer than you can imagine neighborhood.

[MontanaMama]

15. These are the big blue metal boxes outside

the actual post office. They're emptied at 4pm local time by USPS personnel. I guess they could be vandalized but in the 50+ years I've lived here, I've never seen it. The problem (one of many) that I see is that the desk clerk told me that USPS doesn't want our ballots. I would worry even if I were to walk my ballot inside the office.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. Send a pic, please. I think I know what you mean.

Not the ones that used to be located in neighborhoods.

[2naSalit]

33. She's talking about...

The standard blue mailboxes that you see on a street corner only there are some also at the PO as drive through receptacles, same kind of mailbox only located outside the USPS station.

[intheflow]

64. You can no longer send packages in those boxes.

They narrowed the opening to only allow letters or documents. It’s because there’s been a spate of incidents across the country where people had put bombs or flaming parcels into those blue boxes. Just hitting your town? This hit my town at least 10 years ago.

[BigmanPigman]

17. Yup, that's why I may everything from inside the Post Office.

Tons of my mail was screwed up about 3 years ago and I researched this topic and ever since I go inside to mail everything. Some people throw Big Gulps, stuff on fire, etc into the outdoor mail boxes at the actual Post Office.

[patphil]

14. if you vote by mail, make sure your ballot can withstand the most critical scrutiny, and deliver it to the Post Office.

Also, be sure to vote as early as possible.

[MontanaMama]

16. That's the problem.

Delivering it to the post office is probably a bad idea, at least here. The desk clerk told me USPS doesn't want the ballots. I'm taking him at his word. Just because the ballot is walked into the post office doesn't mean it'll be handled correctly.

[patphil]

22. That's true, but it's the best you can do if you have to vote by mail.

In person voting is better, if there isn't some kind of vote blocking situation going on in your district.
What we need is huge numbers of voters on the Democratic side.

[druidity33]

62. I've been told...

you can get it postmarked right then and there if you drop it at the counter and ask the worker. It might help if you absolutely need to mail it.

[mysteryowl]

18. We have ballot boxes at our county service center, not mailed, hand carried.

We also can go online to check that our ballets have been counted.
It is on the Sec. of State website for voting. Don't all states have ways to check on the status of peoples' ballots?

[mysteryowl]

19. It is very disappointing and not surprising.

[0rganism]

21. Clearly we can't rely on mailing in ballots, but will we even receive them in time?

Voting in Oregon, I regularly drop my ballot off at the county elections office, avoiding the USPS for returns. However, as a vote-by-mail state, registered voters all receive our ballots in the mail, usually at least a week before election day. If that "week before" turns into "2 days after", we're gonna have a problem.

[usonian]

23. I take mine to the county clerk's office.

No USPS at all.

[Maru Kitteh]

24. I'm going to go by the POs in Kalispell, WF and Columbia Falls.

See if they’re up to the same thing. I’ll have a look tomorrow and let you know.

[orangecrush]

26. Thanks for sharing this

[Buddyzbuddy]

28. As far as I can tell, in Ontario, CA the post office has removed all drop off mail boxes.

Since 2019.

[AllaN01Bear]

29. ""

there are several options where i live .1: mail. if that gets cut off , i hope somonme sues , 2: drop boxes .( they are maintaained and emptied by the sherrifs office . 3: centeral eletions , about 1:: mi from me.

[Hope22]

30. We request our absentee ballots..

When they arrive we fill them out and then drive the ballots to the BOE. Of course the state has new rules for who can drop off ballots. There is a form that has to be signed if we want to drop off another household members ballot at the BOE. Anything to make things harder. I have never mailed my ballot back. Too many problems with USPS.

[RussBLib]

31. that's going to affect Republicans too

...which is what is nuts about this passport/birth certificate idea to vote. If your birth name is different from your current name, you can't vote? That is going to hurt Republicans probably more than Democrats. I think I have that right.

And they always advertise it as "Voter ID" saying nothing about the birth name issue. And they sure don't mention that in the Save America Act, each state has to turn over all their voting data to the feds. The rabid House approved it, but the Senate is stalling, fortunately.

https://russblib.blogspot.com

[Qutzupalotl]

60. My suspicion is

that they have some unknown capability to “stuff” ballot boxes — metaphorically if not literally — but that it can only be used up to a point, such as a close election. If there is a wipeout coming, their efforts will not be enough. In that scenario, reducing all the ballots via red tape could make it close enough to steal via whatever means they have.

Note that I have NO evidence. This is entirely speculative on my part, and I hope I'm wrong.

The fact that they fear the vote is a good sign, we just need to protect the franchise.

[Escape]

32. Well, surely all Democrats have learned by now...

that we CAN'T vote by mail. The Republicans have a strategy to stop that practice and steal or destroy those ballots.

Let's drop that as a possibility and get back to reality.

Vote early. Vote in person.

Voting by mail is over.

[progressoid]

34. Yep. It's been a long, ongoing plan by the GOP to curtail voting.

Ironically, it also affects rural, military, and aging conservative voters. One assumes that they (the GOP) have done the math and figure that the votes they lose from those who would vote GOP are less than the votes that Dems would lose.

[Qutzupalotl]

59. My state is all vote by mail.

There are dropboxes if you don't want to mail them.

I urge DUers to vote early, absentee if needed, to avoid day-of shenanigans. If you wait until election day and strangely your polling location has no power, or is surrounded by masked thugs, you have played into their hands.

[Dixiegrrrl]

66. There are thousands, if not millions, of us who can no longer vote in person.

So if mail in voting is messed up, we can't vote.😳

[LiberalArkie]

36. Early Voting..

[TBF]

37. I have been saying it over & over -

and people argue with me - I have literally blocked folks on bluesky for telling me that I'm negative & they love mail in voting.

It's not that I don't want them to be happy, I simply read that the postmaster general is handpicked by Trump, and they literally changed the rules so that they have flexibility in what day they postmark the ballots.

Stay away from them if you can. It's not my rule, I think it's horrible, but we have to pay attention to reality around us.

[mountain grammy]

38. Appreciate you sharing this..

I mailed a payment with a check a month ago. It has not arrived. I'm 78, been paying bills by mail most of my life, most I pay online now, but the point is this is the first time it didn't arrive. Maybe I've just been lucky.

[eppur_se_muova]

40. Trmp's Postmaster General, DeJoyless, removed most drop boxes around the country in Trmp's 1st term.

All the drop boxes in our area, including the drive-by boxes right in front of the PO, were removed. We were told it was "for security reasons". (Never believe a Republican using the word "security" -- it's almost always camouflage for something nefarious.) I haven't seen a USPS drop box anywhere in our area since then.

Interesting that we have security cameras on just about every building and parking lot, but they couldn't keep an eye on the mailboxes. Just a sign saying "you're on camera" might have done it -- instead they used it as excuse to remove all the boxes.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee8X8jsUMAEUnWS?format=jpg

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/trump-post-office-mail-in-voting-fraud-boxes-louis-dejoy-a9670816.html

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

73. And jacked up Post Office box rent...

Last edited Tue Mar 3, 2026, 09:27 PM - Edit history (1)

... I just paid $83 for 6 months of Post Office box rent.

[aggiesal]

42. If you can't take it to the ROV site, the easiest is ...

On election day, have your mail ballot filled out and your signature on the envelope.
Go to any precinct (Yes you can take it to any precinct. They can only open it at the ROV)
and drop off the ballot straight into the ballot box.
When I put my ballot in the box, I do not let the poll workers touch by ballot.
They try to take it away and put it in themselves but I always pull the ballot back
and insert it myself.

[Delmette2.0]

43. My Aunt sent me a birthday card.

From Great Falls to Helena. There was no cancelation stamp on it so I don't know when she mailed it.

The bonus is I could reuse the stamp.

[summer_in_TX]

44. In Texas the only place in a county where you can hand-deliver your mail-in ballot is the Elections Office in the county

seat. By law. That can easily be a 45-50 minute drive one-way. Photocopies of allowable IDs have to accompany th ballot.

A family member or someone who lives with the voter can deliver it, but may have to provide ID and fill out and sign a statement. (At least AI says so. Needs additional verification.)

I wonder if certified mail would work.

[ChazInAz]

46. USPS is screwed up!

When I was preparing to move from Atchison, KS back to Tucson last year, I made sure to get my change of address form in early. Waste of time. Their follow-through was spotty, to put it charitably. I got most of my junk mail, but medical bills never showed up. Those eventually resulted in collection agencies getting them.

[Historic NY]

57. ITs on purpose.

[sdfernando]

48. The local USPS branch near where I lived in San Diego (Hillcrest) removed all but one of the drive up drop boxes

but that was over 1-year ago. I think it was just because almost no one used them. Mail volume seems to be way down, everyone uses electronic communications now.

[Martin68]

49. Wow! Thanks for the intelligence.

[Zackzzzz]

50. In our county, voting boxes appear when voting begins.

They are rock solid.
They are installed outside libraries and outside community centers.
Then they are gone and all you see is a flat cement square in the ground.

I live in a little community, and our mail is delivered by a contractor to 5 designated areas.
There was a time when the postoffice wanted to take our mail delivery away.
We had a community meeting to fight this.
From our main postoffice, I was able to get the phone number of someone higher up the chain.
I was told by that person that she was just following orders, and that...they...made the decisions.
So I asked for the phone number of "they". She hemmed and hawed.
So I brought up ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act to her.
That seemed to work.
By the way, I was Tuesday's mail lady for many years.

[peacebuzzard]

52. The enemy within.

that is what I immediately thought when reading this post,. So, even the post office with his* buddy running it is now on the road to an anti-democratic system.
Well well well who would have thought his* buddy would be so brazen....this is just one of the visible things we might see.
**tsf
are we on the path or are we there yet in totalitarianism

[DownriverDem]

54. I take my ballot

directly to our city hall which is where the city clerk is located. trump is doing all he can to rig the Midterms.

[Historic NY]

56. I've mention it several times but evey body poo poo it...

one mailing and post marks. Just because they stamp it behind the counter doesn't mean it counts....mail is being sent to processing facilities and it will receive a metered stamping when it was received (that is the date they are using). How do I know I spoke with our retired Postmaster she got out recently and my school tax office called me about a late payment she kept the envelope my check was in to show me .

Be warned

[Historic NY]

58. Here's What the New USPS Rule Means for Voting by Mail

USPS has also clarified in the DMM that the date of a postmark may not always necessarily reflect the exact date that USPS took custody of a piece of mail. This has always been true due to mail processing delays, where a small number of mail pieces may end up postmarked the day after USPS takes possession of them.

https://campaignlegal.org/update/heres-what-new-usps-rule-means-voting-mail]

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/24/2025-20740/postmarks-and-postal-possession]

Section 11.4


Trump order on late-arriving mail-in ballots ‘egregious and illegal,’ N.J. attorney general says

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2025/03/27/trump-order-on-late-arriving-mail-in-ballots-egregious-and-illegal-n-j-attorney-general-says/

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Tuesday directing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to take “all necessary action” against states that allow mail ballots received after Election Day to be tallied, regardless of whether those ballots were postmarked on or before Election Day.

[BidenRocks]

61. California can't be the only state.

I receive my vote by mail ballot a month before election day. We already have our pre-election materials filled out so voting is just transferring.
We have more county drop boxes than Jack in the Box has restaurants. The ballot is dropped within days of receipt.

The best part is the feedback. Within about 5 days I receive a message that my ballot was received and counted. Thank you for voting.

This seems so natural that I wonder why this isn't a national process. (I know, voter suppression).

No post offices, no lines, no worries.

Unless you want that, of course.

[intheflow]

63. I honestly have never understood mail in voting.

How is having a third party delivering your ballot ever been safe? Remember the USPS worker who threw away a bunch of ballots for in 2016? I mean, if I worked at the PO I wouldn’t want the ballots either. Anything that happens to them, the entire organization will be blamed and eliminated. Mail in voting only makes sense if the voter is disabled or out of the country. IMHO

[LymphocyteLover]

67. the mail is supposed to be sacred and Postal Carfriers take their job seriously

but these days there is a worry with MAGA fanatics tampering wit the system

LOTS of rural conservative voters use vote by mail and some states do entirely vote by mail. It works great when it's done right.

CA notifies you when your ballot is received and usually there are opportunities to fix your vote if there is a problem.

[LymphocyteLover]

68. MAGAt Republicans at work. They hate democracy. Fascist scumballs.

[ShazzieB]

69. Mail drop boxes have become vanishingly rare in my area for a while now.

It's really annoying how far out of the way one has to go sometimes to find a mailbox to drop a letter in. But early voting has become easier and easier around here. The only time I ever voted by mail was at the height of covid in 2020. I dropped off our ballots in person at an indoor drop box location, and Mr. B and I received emails confirming that they had been received shortly after.

Other than that, I have voted early, in person, almost every year since that option became became available to me. I just voted in the 2026 Democratic primary yesterday using this method. Early voting started on February 5, but it was only available at one (very inconvenient for me) location until March 2, so I waited until I could do it without having to drive so far. It was awesome! When I got there around 3 pm, there was literally no one there except the pollworkers, and it only took a few minutes to check in and cast my ballot. I think I spent more time walking from the parking lot to the building and back than I did in the polling place.

Some states, like mine, actually look for ways to make voting easier rather than harder. Imagine that!

[pecosbob]

71. The Supremes just ruled that the USPS cannot be sued for non-delivery of your mail (or ballot).

[Glaisne]

72. If you vote by mail

your vote very well may not be counted. Send that ballot extra early or vote in person.