I appreciate living in a universal vote-by-mail state (Oregon) except for one little problem: the “by mail” part. While I am strongly supportive of the efforts the state makes to get a ballot into the hands of every single voter, the fact that this depends on the US Postal Service increasingly feels like a dangerous dependency in this age of barely-restrained power grabs by the current federal administration. This is especially true given that they’ve already tried to ram through (unconstitutional) federal control of election by USPS rule-making (currently blocked by the courts for the 2026 elections).

We’ve already got a decent network of ballot dropboxes and county clerks’ offices for getting marked ballots back. The real problem is getting blank ballots to the electorate. I don’t know what the answer is here, but I hope the Oregon Secretary of State’s staff is making plans for some alternative way to distribute ballots before the 2028 Presidential elections, which I firmly expect the Republicans to try to steal by any means available.