To the editor:

Next time you walk past the blue collection box outside the Bristol Post Office on Hope Street, take a look at the label on the front. It lists four pickup times on weekdays: 4:15 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5:15 p.m. Most of us would assume that dropping a letter in that box at 3 p.m. in the afternoon means it goes out that day.

It doesn't. And nobody told us. And the consequences to our election could be enormous.

That mailbox label was printed on March 21, 2025. On May 19, 2025 — nearly two months later, without announcement or notice — Bristol was activated under a federal program called Regional Transportation Optimization, or RTO. One of more than 24,000 post offices nationwide where afternoon dispatch has been eliminated, mail now sits overnight and isn't dispatched until morning. The label has never been updated.

Go inside. Below the mail slot, where collection times used to be posted, there are two bare rectangular patches of wall — adhesive residue where the stickers used to be. Someone took them down and put nothing in their place. USPS told federal regulators that updating the boxes would be "too confusing."

Then came Christmas Eve. On December 24, 2025, USPS quietly rewrote what a postmark means. It’s no longer the date you mailed something, but the date your mail reaches a processing facility, which under RTO could be a day or more later. One change slowed your mail down. The other changed the official record to match. They moved the goalposts on what "mailed on time" means while we weren't looking.

There is one partial remedy: bring your mail to the counter and ask for a manual hand-stamp. That's now the only way to guarantee your mail is dated the day you sent it. But it only protects the date on paper. The postmark may say Tuesday. Your letter may not arrive until Thursday.
When the same agency covering up pickup times on Hope Street is also being directed by the Trump administration to control who gets a mail-in ballot delivered, that's not bureaucratic incompetence. That's a pattern.

Federal courts have pushed back, but the Supreme Court recently gave the administration a preliminary green light, and new legal challenges are already underway. The outcome could still affect this November's vote.

For Bristol voters, the safest path is clear. Vote in person if you possibly can — it's the single most reliable way to make sure your vote counts. If you're using a mail-in ballot, don't count on the Hope Street box. Use the official drop box at Bristol Town Hall. Rhode Island requires ballots received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. There is no grace period, and right now, there is no margin for error.

Bristol residents — and every American who relies on the mail — deserve a straight answer about when their mail actually moves, and who actually controls their vote.

Annie Silvia & Lisa Smolski
Bristol
On behalf of StandUP RI