Amid uncertainty about mail-in ballots, WA leaders say they’re ready for what comes next.

While the state’s lawyers fight in court to repel the Trump administration’s repeated attacks against vote-by-mail, Washington’s election officials are drawing up contingency plans for the November election. 

Their main message to Washington’s 5 million registered voters: Don’t worry; we have it handled. 

If President Donald Trump succeeds in getting new, restrictive postal service regulations approved for the 2026 midterm elections, voters will still be able to print a new ballot and envelope if their regular one gets stuck in the postal bureaucracy. 

Those concerned their ballots won’t get postmarked in time to be counted should use a designated drop box, especially if the election is less than a week away. But if you must use the mail, officials say you should hand-deliver it to a post office and ask the postal clerk to stamp your ballot in front of you. Do not deposit your ballot in an old blue mail box that may or may not be on anyone’s regular pickup route. 

The post office isn’t the only concern.

Election officials, law enforcement, fire officials and government lawyers around the state and the country have been conducting “tabletop exercises” for a variety of other situations, from combating rumors on social media to responding to bomb threats and incendiary devices. 

“We have a lot of contingency plans that are written out and documented,” said King County Elections Director Julie Wise, who has been working in elections for more than 20 years. 

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said last week that more than 20,000 mailed ballots were postmarked too late to count and some didn’t arrive until much later because they were left in damaged mailboxes or boxes for which the post office had lost the key. 

By this fall, King County expects to have 100 drop boxes, with no one in the county living farther than a few miles from one, including people living in rural areas. There are more than 580 drop boxes statewide but they are more spread out in less populous counties. State law requires at least one drop box per 15,000 voters, with at least one in each city, town or census-designated location with a post office. They are also located on tribal reservations if requested by the tribe. 

Hobbs says locating more drop boxes around the state is something his department is working on, in cooperation with local governments and the governor’s office. A new drop box map is scheduled to be published on the Secretary of State’s website on Sept. 18. 

Stuart Holmes, director of elections in the Secretary of State’s Office, emphasized that the state has long had a plan for getting ballots to and from people even if they can’t depend on the post office. 

Not only can you print a replacement ballot on the same website where you can update your voter registration, but you can also print a new ballot envelope and tape or glue it together. People who don’t have a computer attached to a printer at home, may need to print their ballot at a public library or vote in person at a county voting center in the days before Election Day. Your county elections office will post locations closer to the election. 

“We have a very resilient system,” Holmes said, adding that the system continues to get stronger every day. “Election officials: We get it done.”

The legal fight

Washington has filed about 75 lawsuits against the second Trump Administration, including three concerning vote-by-mail that Washington is either leading or co-leading. 

“This is a huge priority in our office. It’s a huge priority personally and professionally for the attorney general,” said First Assistant Attorney General Maureen Johnston.

So far, the Trump administration is mostly losing the vote-by-mail battle in the courts. Johnston said the Department of Justice is 0 for 23, for example, in their quest to get access to private information on state voter lists. That doesn’t mean Washington state officials are allowing themselves to be overconfident that federal government interference will be halted before the November election.

“We’re gaming out what could happen and what are the things we need to do in advance,” Johnston said. “You can’t predict what will happen but you want to have given it some thought.”

On Thursday, a three-judge panel in the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s request to lift a lower court’s order that blocked a USPS rule to implement the president’s vote-by-mail executive order. The case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Democrat U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell celebrated the decision in a statement: “That’s right! Harm is being done to voters. Disenfranchisement! Thanks to the Appeals Court decision, the court is saying USPS chaos has got to stop.”

The Washington Attorney General’s Office is also preparing to respond to other potentially disruptive actions of the federal government, such as deploying ICE agents near voting centers or ballot drop boxes. 

The proposed new rules from USPS struck down by the U.S. Appeals Court include changes to ballot envelopes – putting bar codes on outgoing envelopes – that Hobbs says would be impossible to execute in time. For example, ballots to soldiers and other people overseas go out 45 days before the election, which is fewer than two weeks from now.

“The USPS is trying to do everything they can to ruin vote-by-mail,” Hobbs said. “This last rule change is very devastating.”

Earlier this month, the offices of the secretary of state and attorney general jointly released a guide for county election officials that outlines how they should interact with federal officials to make sure the Nov. 3 election will be safe, secure and accurate. The advice ranges from what to do if federal law enforcement officers show up on Election Day to communicating about postal service operations and dealing with people trying to seize voting machines or asking for documents.

‘Everyone cares about elections’

Communication is a big part of the state’s election contingency plan, with a focus on combating misinformation online. 

“Nick always says: Don’t believe everything you read. Be smart about it. Use your head. Demand proof,” Johnston said of her boss, Attorney General Nick Brown, a Democrat. 

The truth she hopes people will hear instead is how voting by mail maximizes participation in our democracy. “Voting is one very concrete way for us to exercise our rights,” she said. 

That is not a partisan opinion, Johnston emphasized. “Everybody should be able to vote for whoever they want,” with an emphasis on everybody having that right. 

Hayward Evans, president of the Seattle King County NAACP, says history teaches that the hard fought right to vote isn’t guaranteed. 

“For Black Americans, the ballot never really came easy,” Evans said. “Progress isn’t permanent unless we protect it.”

Instead of making false statements about vote-by-mail, Wise said the federal government could be doing more to help people vote. “Everyone cares about elections,”  Wise said, adding that both Democrats and Republicans doing her job have voiced concerns about the federal government’s actions. “We are all on the same page of wanting to make sure we have accessibility for our voters.”

Cantwell said she and her Democratic colleagues in the Senate are fighting back, against “people trying to weave a lot of distrust into the system.” She didn’t dismiss concerns about election fraud, however, promising that it would be caught and the penalties would be severe, but Cantwell emphasized that the focus should be on getting out the vote.