A change in how the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) stamps mail could cost Glen Ellyn and Lombard voters their ballots in the Nov. 3 general election.
The Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) issued an alert the week of Monday, Oct. 5, warning that the Postal Service now postmarks mail after it has been processed at distribution centers, not when a letter is dropped off. That shift can add one to two days before a postmark appears, NBC Chicago reported.
Under Illinois law, mail-in ballots must carry a postmark no later than Election Day, Nov. 3, and reach a local election authority by Nov. 17. A ballot mailed on Election Day that doesn't get stamped until Nov. 4 or Nov. 5 would be thrown out.
The USPS rule took effect Dec. 24, 2025, according to Capitol News Illinois. County clerks across the state warned about the change as early as January 2026, and the ISBE is now amplifying that message with the election less than four weeks away.
What Glen Ellyn and Lombard voters should do
Election officials and the Postal Service say voters should mail ballots no later than seven days before Election Day, by Oct. 27, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Voters mailing a ballot after that date should go to a post office counter and request a hand-stamped postmark. That manual stamp locks in the date.
Two other options bypass the mail entirely.
- Drop boxes. DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek's office maintains secure ballot collection sites. As of late September, the clerk had not posted a drop box list for the Nov. 3 election. A full list is available through the ISBE's drop box locator or by calling the DuPage County Election Division at 630-407-5600.
- In-person delivery. Voters can return a completed ballot directly to the DuPage County Clerk's Election Division at 421 N. County Farm Road in Wheaton through Election Day.
Voters who show up at a polling place on Nov. 3 with a mail-in ballot will be asked to surrender it, sign an affidavit and vote in person instead.
Early voting in Glen Ellyn and Lombard opens Oct. 19
Voters who want to skip the mail altogether have expanding options close to home. Permanent early voting sites open Oct. 19 and run through Nov. 2, according to the DuPage County Clerk's office. Two local sites:
- Glen Ellyn Civic Center, 535 Duane St., Glen Ellyn
- Yorktown Center, 350 Yorktown Shopping Center, Lombard
Both are open weekdays 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
At a January 2026 conference of Illinois county clerks in East Peoria, Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman described the stakes of the postmarking change. "It's a question mark of when will it actually get through a distribution center," Ackerman said. "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."
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 29. Voters can check the status of a submitted ballot on the DuPage County Clerk's website or by calling 630-407-5600.
