The Chronicles Of Grant County
Do you vote by mail through the United States Postal Service (USPS)?
Do you pay your taxes by dropping the envelope containing your payment in a USPS postal collection box?
Do you put the envelope with your payment for your utility service at your home's mail slot for a postal worker to pick up while making their rounds?
If you said "yes" to any of these situations, you may believe that the date when you put your letter in the postal mail stream is the date that will appear on a postmark on your letter when it arrives at its destination.
In other words, you may think that when you send an envelope containing your income tax form to the IRS that the date that will display on that correspondence is the date you drop the envelope off at the post office or the date when the envelope is picked up by a postal worker.
If so, you might be correct, but you may also be wrong. By one or more days.
And, if you're wrong, you may find out that your vote did not count, you may find yourself facing a penalty from the IRS for a late payment, and/or you may get a late fee added to your next utility bill.
For many aspects of modern life, the postmark on an envelope has been the proof needed to show that your vote would be counted, that you followed the law by making timely tax payments, and that you complied with your utility's deadlines for payments.
To make certain that an envelope you want to send through the USPS has a postmark on it with a date that is the same date as you provide the envelope to the USPS you must go into a post office and explicitly request a postmark with that date be manually applied to the envelope by a representative of the USPS.
If you so choose, you could also pay additional fees – beyond the postage – to the USPS for additional services. For example, you could send an envelope by Certified Mail or Registered Mail. You could also pay for a Certificate of Mailing. Other postal services also have the date you provide an envelope to the USPS. For example, Express Mail. These additional services, of course, also come with additional fees.
Without explicitly requesting a postmark be manually applied by a representative of the USPS or paying for extra services, there is no guarantee that an envelope you provide to the USPS will bear the date that you provide the envelope to the USPS.
In other words, if you are required to pay your income taxes on April 15, 2026, you must go into a post office and explicitly request a representative of the USPS to manually apply a postmark on or prior to April 15, 2026.
Background:
The American people who read the Federal Register were informed of changes proposed by the USPS on August 12, 2025.
The American people who read the Federal Register were informed of a rule by the USPS affecting postmarks on November 24, 2025.
Thirty days later – as of Christmas Eve of 2025 – the USPS fully implemented its official rule that postmarks are applied by automated machines at Regional Processing and Distribution Centers.
According to a statement issued by the USPS on January 2, 2026, "The Postal Service has not changed and is not changing our postmarking practices, which have been consistent since we began moving away from hand-canceling every item at Post Offices decades ago. Postmarks are generally applied by machines at our originating processing facilities and will continue to be applied at those facilities in the same manner and to the same extent as before. Postmarks applied at those facilities will continue to contain the name or location of the facility that applied the postmark and the date on which the first automated processing operation was performed on that mailpiece."
"While we are not changing our postmarking practices, we have made adjustments to our transportation operations that will result in some mailpieces not arriving at our originating processing facilities on the same day that they are mailed," the USPS statement continued. "This means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the customer's mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a retail location."
The statement from the USPS further noted that "As before, a customer can ensure that a postmark is applied to his or her mailpiece, and that the date on the postmark matches the date of mailing, by visiting a Postal Service retail location and requesting a manual (local) postmark at the retail counter when tendering their mailpiece. Manual postmarks will be applied free of charge."
In essence, where the average American may have thought that when the USPS takes possession of an envelope (properly addressed and with the correct postage affixed, of course), that that is when a postmark is applied.
The average Americans who manage the voting process for elected offices, the average Americans who manage the tax collection systems, and the average Americans who coordinate payments for utilities have operated under the same thought process.
The USPS, though, indicated that the affixing of postmarks has been automated for some time and that the date of a postmark indicates when the USPS began processing an envelope – not when it took possession of an envelope.
Please note that the USPS indicated that the following statement is a myth:
"The Postal Service has long offered the postmark as a way of proving when mail was sent."
Instead, the USPS indicated that the following statement is fact:
"Customers have used postmarking for their own purposes, but postmarking is not and has not been a service that the Postal Service has provided to the public for such purposes. The postmark has always fundamentally existed to perform functions (including cancelation of postage) internal to Postal Service operations."
Please note that the USPS also indicated that the following statement is a myth:
"Postmarks show when and where the Postal Service took possession of my mail."
Instead, the USPS stated that the following information is fact:
"A postmark date does not necessarily indicate the first day that the Postal Service took possession of the mailpiece. Rather, it confirms that the Postal Service accepted custody of a mailpiece, and that the mailpiece was in the possession of the Postal Service on the identified date. Also note that the absence of a postmark does not necessarily imply that the Postal Service did not accept custody of a mailpiece, because the Postal Service does not postmark all mail in the ordinary course of operations and because occasional circumstances may arise where a legible postmark is not applied."
Again, according to the USPS, if you want to be certain that your envelope has a postmark applied on the date that the USPS takes possession of the envelope, you must take the envelope to a post office and explicitly request a representative of the USPS to manually place a postmark that shows the date that you provided the envelope to the USPS. Or, you can pay the USPS for additional services.
Beyond the USPS, of course, there are other options:
Vote in person or drop off your ballot at officially-designated places.
Pay your taxes in person or pay your taxes through the internet.
Pay your utility bills in person or pay your utility bills through the internet.
Do you have questions about communities in Grant County?
A street name? A building?
Your questions may be used in a future news column.
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© 2026 Richard McDonough
