SALT LAKE CITY — A union representing postal workers across the country is buying advertisements in Utah to promote voting by mail ahead of next month's primary elections.
The advertisement features several voters who benefit from mail-in voting, including healthcare workers, farmers and older adults, and calls for voting by mail to be preserved and expanded.
“Vote by mail is important to us, it's a priority. It's the one thing that goes above all else,” said Amy Parke, a longtime postal worker and president of the Utah Postal Workers Union. “And I see how secure it is. I see the accountability and the structures that we put in place.”
Ad distribution and union goals
The advertisements will run on broadcast and cable television channels across the state, as well as on digital platforms. Union leaders say they are pushing back against efforts to weaken mail-in voting at both the state and national levels.
Upcoming changes to Utah voting
Utah has offered universal vote-by-mail for more than a decade, but lawmakers approved a bill last year that would require Utah voters to opt in to receive ballots by mail beginning in 2029. Voters will also need to include the last four digits of their driver's license number, state identification number, or Social Security number when returning mailed ballots to help clerks verify the identity of voters.
Support from League of Women Voters
Katharine Biele, the president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, spoke alongside postal workers at a press conference in Salt Lake City on Thursday and supported Utah's current system of vote-by-mail.
“When you make voting more difficult, more confusing, when you add unnecessary steps to the process, you inevitably decrease turnout,” she said. “We will continue fighting for the voters' right to the ballot.”
Arguments for increased ballot security
Lawmakers, however, have said the bill adds security to Utah's process.
“The primary problem this bill is trying to fix, I would say, is essentially you can register to vote in Utah currently and then never show your ID again,” former Rep. Jefferson Burton, the bill sponsor, said last year. “All this does is enhance an already good system.”
Trump's executive order on mail-in voting
President Donald Trump has also targeted mail-in voting through an executive order he signed in March meant to tighten rules on mail-in voting and create a national voter list. It would also block the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to people not on the approved list.
A federal judge on Thursday declined to block the order, saying it was too early to put it on hold because it has not yet been implemented.
Russ Franklin, president of the Salt Lake City Area Local 6 of the American Postal Workers Union, said postal workers will follow the law, but encouraged voters to support efforts to protect mail-in voting.
“We're going to reach out individually and to our customers and the public to say help us protect vote-by-mail because it's fast, it's efficient, it's secure,” he said.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson on Wednesday released the results of an audit of the citizenship status of those on the state's voter rolls, which found only a “small handful” of registered voters who are not citizens.
Related: Critical gaps in how Utah voter privacy requests are denied
