Democrats’ mail-voting plans shift as officials work to reassure voters

Democrats rethink their mail-voting strategy as voters grow wary - POLITICO

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Democrats rethink their mail-voting strategy as voters grow wary

Voting groups and election officials continue to work to quell voters’ fears after Trump’s push to restrict the practice.

!Mail-in ballots sit in containers.

*Mail-in ballots sit in containers from the U.S. Postal Service waiting to be processed by election workers at the Salt Lake County election office in Salt Lake City, Utah. | George Frey/AFP via Getty Images*

By Jalen Beckford

10/01/2026 05:00 AM EDT

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The Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to restrict mail voting. But for Democrats trying to turn out voters, the uncertainty seems harder to put to rest.

Fewer Democrats say they plan to vote by mail in November’s midterms than at the same point in 2024, according to a new NBC News poll, as a separate survey finds declining confidence that the Postal Service will deliver election mail on time. That represents an about-face for a party that has increasingly embraced mail voting since the 2020 pandemic election, forcing Democratic strategists to rethink how they get voters to the polls — and how to convince them their ballots will count.

Quentin James, founder and president of the Collective PAC, said his group is hearing concerns from Black voters about whether their mailed ballots will be secure and counted.

“I think there’s confusion,” James said. “We know that the president has spent six months talking about changing the rules regarding mail-in voting, and a lot of folks are concerned about their ballot being secure.”

* 2026 Elections
* Donald Trump
* Mail-in voting
* USPS
* U.S. Postal Service

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