Maria Cantwell

WASHINGTON – With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to decide a case that could change how voters in Washington state cast their ballots, President Donald Trump visited the Capitol on Wednesday to pressure Republicans to go even further by passing a bill that would dramatically overhaul the nation’s voting system just months before Election Day.

Washington is one of 14 states – along with the District of Columbia – where ballots are counted as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day, even if election officials receive them later, but a ruling expected from the Supreme Court in the coming days could eliminate that grace period. Amid the uncertainty created by that case and other developments, state election officials say Washingtonians should mail their ballots at least a week before Nov. 3 – or drop them in an official collection box – to ensure their votes are counted in this year’s general election.

Even if the high court doesn’t strike down a Mississippi law and others like it that allow late-arriving ballots to be counted, Sen. Maria Cantwell warned Tuesday that Washington voters could see their ballots rejected this fall because of a U.S. Postal Service policy change that took effect in December. Under the new rule, mail is postmarked when it reaches a regional processing center, not when it is first received at a post office.

In a speech on the Senate floor, the Washington Democrat said a test conducted by the Snohomish County auditor’s office around the state’s Feb. 10 special election found that fewer than half of 15 test ballots mailed before 9 a.m. were postmarked that day. Casting the new Postal Service policy as part of a long history of challenges to Americans’ voting rights, Cantwell said 75% of ballots rejected in the February election were due to late postmarks, according to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.

“Disenfranchisement today is more bureaucratic, it’s more technical, but the results for ordinary citizens can be the same,” she said. “Their voices are shunned out of a democracy.”

The House’s Republican majority has twice passed versions of what is now called the SAVE America Act, a broad set of election reforms that would require Americans to prove their citizenship each time they register to vote, among numerous other provisions. Senate Republicans have quietly resisted Trump’s demand that they end the chamber’s filibuster rule to pass the bill, and GOP senators told reporters the president spent much of a luncheon at the Capitol on Wednesday making that same request.

The bills passed by the House – first in April 2025 and again in February – wouldn’t ban mail-in voting, but Trump has repeatedly said he wants lawmakers to amend the legislation and end vote-by-mail, which Washington and several other states rely on almost entirely to conduct their elections.

Even if that legislation doesn’t become law, the Trump administration is taking other steps to restrict voting by mail. On Wednesday, Postmaster General David Steiner told a Senate committee the Postal Service would restrict mail-in voting in any state that doesn’t comply with a March 31 executive order signed by Trump that aims to establish a national list of eligible voters, with ballots sent only to those people.

A group of Democratic state attorneys general, including Washington’s Nick Brown, have sued the Trump administration over that executive order, arguing that it represents an unconstitutional violation of states’ right to conduct elections. In a separate case, a federal district court judge in D.C. ruled on Monday that the database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status the Trump administration is using to create that national voter list is unlawful and could disenfranchise eligible voters based on unreliable data.

A spokeswoman for Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State, which works with county auditors to administer elections, said the office recommends that voters use the state’s secure ballot drop boxes, which are open 24/7 beginning 18 days before each election day.

“The United States Postal Service recommends mailing ballots 7 days prior to Election Day,” spokeswoman Helen Smith said in an email. “If a voter must mail their ballot, the Office of the Secretary of State encourages them to vote and drop their ballot off as early as possible.”

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton, a Democrat, said the Supreme Court case and Trump’s March 31 executive order would affect only the Nov. 3 general election, not Washington’s Aug. 3 primary election. Voters who want to cast a ballot by mail less than a week before Election Day, she said, should walk into a post office and request that a postmark be applied by hand, known as a “hand cancellation.”

Dalton said the recent change in how the Postal Service processes mail has created a delay in postmarking, partly because mail is now being transferred from post offices to regional processing centers only once per day.

“The transfer is now occurring in the morning, which means any mail deposited during Election Day will not be sent to the processing center until the next day,” she said in an email. “That mail will receive a postmark that is too late to be accepted and counted. This is an issue for all mail that has a deadline, such as paying bills or filing legal documents.”

If the Supreme Court rules that all ballots must be received by election officials no later than Election Day, Dalton said, she recommends that voters stop using the Postal Service a week before ballots are due and use only the official drop boxes. If they are outside the state or otherwise can’t access a drop box, she said voters should consider using an overnight delivery service such as FedEx, UPS or DHL to ensure their ballots arrive by Election Day.

Smith said the Supreme Court’s decision in Watson v. Republican National Committee, the case challenging the Mississippi law, could affect Washington state’s election system.

In Washington state, ballots that are postmarked on time are currently accepted up to the day before election certification. This is up to 20 days after the general election, 13 days for primaries, or nine days after special elections. The Supreme Court’s decision on Watson v. RNC may mean that votes for federal races cannot be accepted if those ballots were received after election day, regardless of when they were postmarked. County auditors in Washington state will continue to accept votes for state races as long as those ballots are received within the appropriate window and were postmarked by election day, in accordance with state law.

At a June 17 forum for Republican candidates hosted by the Spokane County GOP, Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, said a Supreme Court decision to require that ballots are received by Election Day would “certainly help” improve elections, but he added, “I cannot stress how important it is going to be that on the back of this court ruling, that we get people to vote early.”

“It’s going to take everyone in this room to help educate voters,” Baumgartner told the group of roughly 100 Republicans inside the Union Event Center. “And it only pertains to federal candidates, like myself, but we’ll see what the state does with it, and how it comes out, and whether there’s some lawsuits here at the state level.”

At the Washington State Democratic Party’s convention in Spokane on Saturday, Chair Shasti Conrad said the party had begun an “education process” to tell voters that their ballots must be received no later than Election Day.

“Not to wait till that final weekend, but they need to vote early, they need to make sure that they’re getting them into ballot boxes,” Conrad said.

In a statement provided by Smith, the office of Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said it would work “to ensure voters understand their options” if the Supreme Court rules that ballots must arrive by Election Day. The office said it is already in the process of removing text on ballot envelopes for the November election that currently says ballots must be dropped off or postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

“The Office of the Secretary of State is prepared to launch a statewide voter education campaign to help voters understand any changes and the steps they need to take to ensure their ballot is received on time,” the statement said. “This effort would include public service announcements on broadcast television and radio, social media outreach, updates to our website, and materials counties can use to support local voter education efforts.”

The Supreme Court is scheduled to release the remainder of its decisions from the current term by early July, with a ruling in the Mississippi case potentially coming as soon as Thursday.

Reporter Mitchell Roland contributed to this story.