EAST PEORIA — New postal service changes to postmarking and transportation rules could disrupt mail-in voting in the 2026 election, Illinois county clerks warn.

Ahead of the March primary election, county clerks are telling voters not to rely on past processes and to mail their ballots as early as possible, no later than one week before Election Day.

Clerks from around the state discussed how to educate voters at the annual Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders Conference on Thursday in East Peoria.

One new rule, which took effect Dec. 24, states that the date a postmark is applied to a piece of mail may not reflect the day it was received by the Postal Service.

Currently, 14 states, including Illinois, will accept mail-in ballots if they are received within a certain period after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before Election Day.

Clerks warned that uncertainty about when ballots will now be postmarked necessitates voters to act earlier. The way postmarks are applied is not changing, the USPS says. Mail is only postmarked at distribution centers, and that will remain the same.

But in an effort to improve mail delivery efficiency, some localities’ mail may be sent to a different distribution center than in the past, which can increase the amount of time it takes for the USPS to receive and then postmark mail at these centers.

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“It’s a question mark of when will it actually get through a distribution center. So I’m advising my voters to make sure that they get their vote-by-mail ballot in the mail no less than a week before Election Day,” John Ackerman, the Tazewell County clerk, said.

In the city of Peoria, for example, the distribution center is in Peoria. Tazewell County’s center, Ackerman said, is in Champaign, although Peoria is geographically closer.

To educate voters about the change, he said, his office will include yellow index cards with the recommendation in the vote-by-mail packets sent to voters.

Voters can also request a manual postmark from their local post office or drop off their ballot at the election official’s office.

But if election officials can’t rely on postmarks to reflect accurate dates, a number of mail-in ballots that were mailed prior to Election Day may not be counted at all clerks said.

Ballots also will no longer be automatically considered priority mail, increasing the amount of time it will take to deliver the mail.

“We’ve utilized that successfully over the years to make sure that all those ballots not only are delivered, but they are received in time. Changing that status dramatically changes how that will impact us as well,” Ackerman said.

These changes will be most felt during the recount process, when candidates are “scrambling,” Ackerman said.

The clerks generally agreed this could change the outcome of a race.

Clerks also said they are concerned about changes impacting voter trust in elections, especially because voter guidance is now going to be different depending on the county’s location and distribution center.

“We’ve told all of our voters, get your vote-by-mail ballot in your box by Election Day to be postmarked for Election Day, we will process it now. We’re ripping the rug out from underneath that,” Ackerman said. “That leads to distrust. When you can’t give a solid date, you can’t give a solid answer, when you can’t reply back to them with facts, when it’s left for interpretation. That erodes the trust that we’ve been trying to rebuild.”

In the past, when this potential change was proposed, the clerks said they were able to speak to federal lawmakers to advocate for its reversal.

In late September 2025, a delegation of clerks traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers and staff about changes to federal funding for election infrastructure and learned lawmakers didn’t know about the potential changes, Ackerman said.

“They were all unaware that this change was going to take effect. They were unaware, in my opinion, of the impacts it would have on vote by mail,” he said.

This time, however, clerks didn’t know the changes were proposed until days before they were implemented.

“It is our goal to get to the public being 100% trusting of our system, but that’s something we’ve strived diligently to do to repair that relationship, and I think this hurts that,” Ackerman said.

To be sure your vote has been counted, voters can call their county clerk’s office, or some counties offer ballot tracking online.

County clerks emphasized that voting by mail is still safe and secure, but it might take more work and planning.

Kathy Michael, the McLean County clerk, said voters can request to have their ballot manually postmarked at the post office when they return it.

“Just mail it early or go into the post office. I don’t want to say it’s that simple. I don’t want to make it simple, but that’s all you have to do,” she said. “Don’t be discouraged and not do it and not vote. … Get it postmarked, and you can go off on your vacation and not worry about it.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.