The Associated Press reports the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) is launching a national TV ad campaign promoting voting by mail, stepping into a politically charged debate as skepticism about mail-in ballots has been raised by President Donald Trump and others. The 30-second message features a variety of voters, among them a Farmer and a Flight Attendant, explaining why they cast their ballots by mail. Sponsored by the 200,000-member APWU, the advertising campaign will begin airing this week in Ohio, where Union Army Soldiers during the Civil War cast the first mail ballots in 1864. It will then move to other States. The ad ends with the message: "Vote by mail - keep it, protect it, expand it." It comes two weeks after Trump signed an Executive Order that seeks to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and subsequently bar Postal Workers from sending absentee ballots to those who are not on each State's approved list. APWU President Jonathan Smith said his Union's TV ad was produced before Trump's Executive Order was issued, not in response to it. An Executive Order on elections that Trump signed last year also targeted mail ballots by seeking to require they be returned by Election Day, even though more than a dozen States allow a grace period. Smith said the Union wants to encourage people to continue voting by mail.

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