The American Postal Workers Union is bringing its Vote-by-Mail campaign to Nebraska this week, launching a television ad in Omaha and holding a news conference Friday to explain why postal workers have turned to the airwaves for what the union calls an unprecedented campaign to promote voting by mail.
The 30-second ad features a wide range of voters explaining, in their own words, why they choose a mail ballot. It closes with the campaign’s central message: “Vote by mail — keep it, protect it, expand it.”
APWU members will gather at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 25, at the union’s Omaha Area Local #11 office, to show the ad and release the results of a national poll conducted jointly by leading Democratic and Republican pollsters earlier this year, showing broad, bipartisan support for Vote-by-Mail. Nebraska postal union leaders will also discuss the work postal workers are doing to make sure ballots and election mail are delivered on time.
“Having served as a ballot monitor in numerous elections, I’ve seen the process firsthand and voting by mail works,” said David Rose, a postal worker who serves as president of APWU’s Omaha Area Local #11. “Every eligible voter should have the freedom to choose the voting method that works best for them, including voting by mail.”
The Omaha rollout comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a White House executive order on mail ballots, issued in March, was illegal. The executive order created confusion among some voters about Vote-by-Mail.
Despite vote-by-mail’s long record of security and popularity, some in Washington continue trying to delegitimize mail ballots and create hurdles for voters who cast a ballot outside a polling place, the union says.
The Numbers Behind the Message
Voting by mail has been part of American elections since the Civil War. Nationally, 1 in 3 voters cast a ballot by mail in 2024, and the practice is especially popular among voters 65 and older. Every state allows some form of absentee voting, and eight states plus the District of Columbia conduct elections almost exclusively by mail.
Nebraska is a no-excuse vote-by-mail state, meaning any registered voter can request a mail ballot, and 1 in 4 Nebraska voters cast one in the 2024 general election. Eleven Nebraska counties with fewer than 10,000 residents conduct their elections entirely by mail.
What’s Next
The Omaha event is part of a broader APWU campaign that has already run in North Carolina and other states this fall, with more markets to come as voters head toward the 2026 midterms.
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