Mail-in voters weigh flying to vote in person and other backup plans amid uncertainty

A person drops mail into a blue U.S. Postal Service collection box in New York City in 2020. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

For almost a decade, Kelsi Kiper has relied on the U.S. Postal Service to cast her ballots as a voter registered in Texas but stationed out of state with her husband, an active-duty service member.

This year, though, to make sure her voice is heard, she's making a backup plan.

Kiper hopes she'll be able to exercise her voting rights by mail for this year's midterm general election. But she recently started considering spending around $2,000 to book flights and rental cars so she can vote in person.

"It's not something that I think a lot of us in the military are prepared to spend because many military families operate on a single income," Kiper said. "For me, I think that it's important to prioritize the rights that our active-duty members are serving to preserve."

The ongoing legal fight over a Postal Service plan for President Trump's attempt to exert control over federal elections is forcing millions of other eligible voters to navigate the uncertainty with voting by mail for the midterms.

For now, USPS is expected to handle election mail as usual. North Carolina and parts of Wisconsin have already started sending out absentee ballots for the general election.

That's because U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has blocked USPS from refusing to deliver ballots to voters in states where election officials do not turn over voter lists to the mailing agency and do not have certain specific barcodes on their ballot envelopes.