By Paula Pyzik Scott

Numerous national news outlets have recently highlighted a December 24, 2025, update to the United States Postal Service manual on postmarks and postal possession. The update emphasizes that postmarks represent the date an item is processed, not the day the item is received.

Mail collected at the Ada, Ohio, post office is postmarked in Columbus.

Postmarks on items such as absentee ballots and tax returns are used to determine if they have met a deadline. Such items can be hand-postmarked in Ada if brought to the lobby service window during regular hours of operation.

The accompanying photo shows a letter hand-postmarked in Bluffton.

According to the Federal Register, a daily journal of the U.S. government, the update “does not change any existing postal operations or postmarking practices, but is instead intended to improve public understanding of postmarks and their relationship to the date of mailing.”

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