Bipartisan Opposition From Wisconsin Elections Commission Regarding Voting Proposal for U.S. Postal Service

Thursday, July 9th, 2026 -- 11:00 AM

(Gray) The U.S. Postal Service is proposing significant changes to absentee mail-in voting, including a rule that would create a list of voters eligible to use mail-in ballots and intelligent mail barcodes on ballot envelopes, allowing votes to be processed at centralized sorting facilities.

The proposal is drawing bipartisan opposition from leaders of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Republican Don Millis, chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said the rule would disproportionately impact rural voters who have less access to drop boxes and rely on mail-in voting.

“I think that there are some folks in the current administration who just think that mail-in ballots are bad and that that’s a source of all sorts of election fraud,” Millis said. “Absentee balloting is important for Republicans. And if you don’t make it available by mail, it’s going to hurt Republicans.”

Ann Jacobs, a Democrat and former chair on the commission, co-signed a letter with Millis to USPS warning that the proposed changes would add several days of processing time and would “likely disenfranchise a significant swath of Wisconsin voters.”

“So many parts of the state are far from these processing facilities and it’s less likely that their ballots are going to be counted,” Millis said. According to USPS’ proposed rule, the list of eligible voters would “allow law enforcement officials to compare the total number of mailed ballots to the total number of received ballots to detect potential issues meriting further investigation.”

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