The Baltimore Banner featured a regulatory comment submitted by the Center for Election Confidence (CEC) to the United States Postal Service concerning the importance of the USPS fulfilling its centuries-old public duty to postmark the mail it handles, including mail containing ballots.

From the article:

According to the USPS proposal, the rule change would make it so a letter’s postmark would not necessarily be the date on which the postal service first accepted a piece of mail, as is now the case. 

A postmark under the new rule would indicate that USPS had a piece of mail in its possession on that date — but it would not be clear whether the mail arrived at USPS earlier.

The Center for Election Confidence (CEC), a nonprofit focused on ethics in elections, also submitted a letter opposing the proposed rule change.

Postmarks have been relied upon by governments, courts, litigants, and all manner of third parties to best discern the date and location of mailing for over 350 years,” CEC said in its letter. “Now after centuries of postmarks, the USPS’s Proposed Rule seeks to abdicate this responsibility.