A prominent union representing U.S. Postal Service employees is set to roll out a nationwide television advertising campaign championing mail-in voting. This initiative enters a contentious dialogue, as figures like President Donald Trump have voiced doubts about the integrity of mail-in ballots.
The 30-second commercial showcases a diverse group of voters, including a farmer with a hectic schedule and a flight attendant, sharing their reasons for choosing to vote by mail. Backed by the American Postal Workers Union, which boasts 200,000 members, the campaign was unveiled on Tuesday and is slated to begin airing in Ohio. Notably, Ohio is where Union Army soldiers first utilized mail ballots during the Civil War in 1864. The campaign will subsequently extend to additional states.
The advertisement concludes with a call to action: “Vote by mail — keep it, protect it, expand it.” This campaign follows closely on the heels of an executive order signed by Trump, which aims to compile a national roster of verified voters and prevent the postal service from distributing absentee ballots to individuals not included on each state’s sanctioned list.
Trump’s directive has swiftly encountered legal challenges and resistance from postal workers. The National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association criticized the USPS’s involvement, stating that it lacks the capacity and authority to determine voter eligibility. They argue that such involvement risks politicizing a highly trusted public institution and could undermine public confidence in both the postal system and electoral processes.
Requests for comments were submitted to both the White House and the Postal Service, though responses have yet to be received.
Jonathan Smith, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, clarified that the union’s television advertisement was conceptualized prior to the issuance of Trump’s executive order and not as a reaction to it. The executive order Trump signed last year also targeted mail-in voting by proposing that ballots be returned by Election Day, despite more than a dozen states allowing a grace period for ballot submission.
Smith said the union wants to encourage people to continue voting by mail. But he expressed concern about the potential ramifications of requiring postal workers to determine who should receive an absentee ballot and who should not.
“It is our position that it is not the job of the postal workers to verify voter eligibility,” he said. “It is our job to move mail from one destination to the next. He added: “We do not want to be politicized.”
Trump’s latest election executive order is already facing lawsuits by various groups, including Democrats in Washington who argue that the Constitution empowers states and Congress, not the president, to set election rules.
Trump, who as recently as last month voted by mail, has publicly bashed mail voting as a source of fraud and is pushing Congress to curtail it through sweeping legislation. Mail voting has existed for more than a century and had steadily been increasing in popularity in both Democratic- and Republican-led states until 2020, when Trump started to target the method, levying baseless claims of mass fraud. It has now becomes less popular among Republicans.
A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that cases of mail voting fraud occurred in only a tiny fraction of total mail ballots cast — about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots.
The TV ad is intended to be a direct message to voters, not the president.
“Our message is to America: Vote by mail is efficient, it’s safe, and it’s successful. Period,” Smith said. “This is educating the American people that you can use vote by mail and you can be guaranteed that your voice will be heard and your vote will be counted.”
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