From the Washington Post editorial board today, in response to Trump’s call to ban mail-in voting nationwide: “Everyone loses when the federal government runs elections.”

Oh, really? Do they now?

Hey, remember the obnoxiously named For the People Act from a few years ago? The one that would have federalized state election procedures?

From the Washington Post editorial board in March 2021, commenting on that partisan Democratic bill championed by President Biden: “Republicans’ rhetoric on H.R. 1 is apocalyptic. Are they that afraid of democracy?”

The condescension of that title ran throughout the editorial:

Conservatives complain that the bill would mandate early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, provisional ballots for people who accidentally vote out-of-precinct, same-day voter registration and automatic voter registration. So? There is nothing scary or even unusual about these reforms, which many states have embraced without seeing the pervasive fraud Republicans predict and claim falsely has occurred.

Opponents argue that counting mail-in ballots that arrive in the days after Election Day, as long as they are mailed on time, would produce uncertainty about the results on election night. Big deal. It is far more important to count Americans’ votes, even if the U.S. Postal Service delays their delivery, than it is to soothe impatient election night viewers.

Critics also warn that state legislatures would have to turn over congressional district map-drawing to independent commissions. And? Extreme partisan gerrymandering makes the need for nonpartisan redistricting, which has worked in state after state that has tried it, more acute.

So, back in 2021, Republicans were concerned that putting the federal government in charge of election rules across the country may be a bad idea. The Washington Post replied, “So?” “And?” “Big deal.” Now, it informs us that “everyone loses when the federal government runs elections.” I suppose that the For the People Act wasn’t as flatly unobjectionable as the Post thought it was.

Just one puzzling mystery remains: What could have changed between 2021 and 2025 that caused the Washington Post editorial board to undergo this incredible change of heart . . . ?