A massive U.S. Postal Service union has launched a national television advertising campaign advocating for voting by mail, entering a politically charged debate fueled by skepticism from President Donald Trump and others regarding mail-in ballots.
The 30-second advertisement features a diverse group of voters, including a busy farmer and a flight attendant, explaining their reasons for casting ballots via mail.
Sponsored by the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the campaign, announced on Tuesday, is set to begin airing this week in Ohio. The state holds historical significance as the location where Union Army soldiers cast the first mail ballots during the Civil War in 1864. The campaign will subsequently expand to other states.
The ad concludes with the message: “Vote by mail — keep it, protect it, expand it.” This initiative comes just two weeks after President Trump signed an executive order aiming to establish a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and subsequently prohibit postal workers from sending absentee ballots to individuals not on each state’s approved roster.
President Trump’s order was swiftly met with lawsuits and opposition from postal workers.
The National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association stated that the USPS is “not equipped or authorized to decide who is or is not entitled to vote,” arguing that pushing it into such a role “risks politicizing one of the nation’s most trusted public institutions.”
The union further warned that the order threatens public confidence in both the mail system and elections.
Messages seeking comment were left with the White House and the Postal Service.
Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers Union, clarified that his union’s TV ad was produced before Trump’s executive order was issued, and therefore is not a direct response to it. An executive order on elections signed by President Trump last year also targeted mail ballots by seeking to mandate their return by Election Day, despite more than a dozen states allowing a grace period.
Smith emphasized the union’s desire to encourage people to continue voting by mail. However, he voiced concern about the potential ramifications of requiring postal workers to determine who should or should not receive an absentee ballot.
“It is our position that it is not the job of the postal workers to verify voter eligibility,” he stated. “It is our job to move mail from one destination to the next.” He added: “We do not want to be politicized.”
President Trump’s latest election executive order is already facing legal challenges from various groups, including Democrats in Washington who contend that the Constitution empowers states and Congress, not the president, to establish election rules.
Trump, who himself voted by mail as recently as last month, has publicly criticized mail voting as a source of fraud and is urging Congress to curtail it through sweeping legislation.
Mail voting has been a practice for over a century and had steadily gained popularity in both Democratic- and Republican-led states until 2020, when President Trump began targeting the method with baseless claims of mass fraud. It has since become less popular among Republicans.
A report published by the Brookings Institution in 2025 found that instances of mail voting fraud occurred in only a tiny fraction of total mail ballots cast — approximately four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots.
The TV ad is intended as a direct message to voters, rather than to the president.
“Our message is to America: Vote by mail is efficient, it’s safe, and it’s successful. Period,” Mr. Smith affirmed. “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.”
About the Author
