Bolts25%

Mail and the Midterms: Send Us Your Questions 40%

By Ask Bolts0%

7/6/2026, 9:23:39 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 14 faulty reasoning types, including Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, Negativity Bias, and Biased Writer Voice, with Politically Left Leaning Bias as the most egregious example at 37.5% saturation with 122 hits. Analysis detected 800 faulty-reasoning hits from 325 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.4% and a BS Rank of 40% (18,562 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 60.70% of the article peer group.

As the midterms draw closer, President Trump and his allies on the right have increased their attacks on mail voting while continuing to falsely claim that it is rife with fraud. 
Voting advocates are now warning about disruptive new policies announced by the U.S. 
Postal Service and the Trump administration, including changes to how mail is postmarked, and an executive order this spring attempting to give the USPS sweeping new authority over who can even vote by mail. 
That executive order has been blocked, for now. 
Mail voting has also become a major battleground in states, as a barrage of GOP laws restricts access to mail ballots and drop boxes, and bans voters from receiving assistance . 
But in late June, mail voting got a surprise reprieve when the Supreme Court upheld grace periods that allow election officials to count ballots that were postmarked by Election Day but arrive later. 
Conservatives have seized on the time it takes some states to count all ballots to amplify baseless allegations of fraud, most recently in the California primaries. 
We suspect this has left you with a lot of questions—including about what it means for your own access to mail voting. 
So we want to hear from you. 
Let us know what’s been on your mind and we will research and answer many of your queries in our next edition of “Ask Bolts.” 
What questions do you have about the USPS’s latest policies and what it might mean for you? 
Do you have questions about how mail ballots are counted—why that process can be so slow, and what reforms are on the table? 
Are you curious which states provide the most restrictive or expansive access to mail voting? 
Share your questions with us in the form below by noon ET on Friday, July 17 . 
And remember: all questions are welcome. 
Nothing is too in the weeds for Bolts ! 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 2.2%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.2%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 2.4%Availability Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.7%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.4%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 7.7%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.2%Overconfidence Bias7.7%This article: 19.1%Ask Bolts: 10.3%Bolts: 4.7%Framing Effect19.1%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.2%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 2.5%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.5%Status Quo Bias2.5%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.3%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 10.2%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 1.2%Optimism Bias10.2%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 1.3%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 31.1%Ask Bolts: 13.5%Bolts: 4.6%Negativity Bias31.1%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.7%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.7%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.4%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.2%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 8.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.5%Recency Bias8.0%This article: 6.8%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Primacy Effect6.8%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.3%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Straw Man0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 1.4%Appeal to Authority0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.5%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 1.0%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 9.5%Ask Bolts: 13.5%Bolts: 2.0%Hasty Generalization9.5%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.4%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 18.5%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 3.2%Appeal to Emotion18.5%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.3%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 1.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.3%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 2.2%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.5%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.2%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.0%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.2%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 24.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.5%Unattributed Quote24.0%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.2%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 27.1%Ask Bolts: 5.2%Bolts: 2.8%Biased Writer Voice27.1%This article: 12.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.3%Indoctrination12.0%This article: 37.5%Ask Bolts: 27.1%Bolts: 3.2%Politically Left Leaning Bias37.5%This article: 0.0%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 32.3%Ask Bolts: 0.0%Bolts: 0.1%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…32.3%

325 words analyzed.

Speakers

1speaker10%attributed speech291writer words
Selected voice

USPS

100%flagged-word coverage
34 attributed words100% of attributed speech87% writer coverage
0%50.0%100.0%Unattributed Quote+84.9 ptsWriter: 15.1%USPS: 100.0%100.0%Politically Left Leaning B+69.8 ptsWriter: 30.2%USPS: 100.0%100.0%Attempt to Sell a Product -36.1 ptsWriter: 36.1%USPS: 0.0%0.0%Biased Writer Voice-30.2 ptsWriter: 30.2%USPS: 0.0%0.0%Indoctrination-13.4 ptsWriter: 13.4%USPS: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.