ELECTION INTEGRITYVoting by Mail? Election Workers Are Worried About Issues at the Postal Service.
State election officials are encouraging people who vote by mail to be proactive about making sure their ballots are counted.
Top election officials last week sounded the alarm about ongoing delays within America’s mail delivery system and the potential effect on mail-in voting in the upcoming presidential election, a warning that comes as former President Donald Trump continues to sow distrust about how some of those ballots will be counted.
Some people who vote by mail may be disenfranchised this fall if the issues are not addressed, the officials said in a letter to the head of the United States Postal Service that detailed challenges with the delivery of mail-in ballots over the past year.
“We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service,” officials said in the letter, which was signed by representatives for the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors — two organizations that include state and local election officials in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories. “Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”
Election officials, who are overwhelmingly women, have long highlighted the challenges of running the country’s decentralized elections, particularly after 2020 — challenges that include debunking ongoing lies about election security. Trump and some Republicans have for years spread disinformation about elections, including how and when mail-in ballots are counted.
A handful of secretaries of state also testified to members of Congress last Wednesday that they continue to deal with the ramifications of those lies, including responding to threats of violence.
In the letter, dated Sept. 11, election officials said mail-in ballots have at times been erroneously held for remediation, significantly delayed or “otherwise improperly processed.” Election officials “in nearly every state” have received postmarked ballots “well after Election Day and well outside the three to five business days USPS claims as the First-Class delivery standard.”
In multiple states, election officials reported receiving “anywhere from dozens to hundreds of ballots 10 or more days after postmark.”
“There is no amount of proactive communication election officials can do to account for USPS’s inability to meet their own service delivery timelines,” said the letter.
Election officials also reported instances in which mail that was sent to and from voters was marked as “undeliverable” at higher-than-usual rates. The potential ripple effect, they cautioned, was voters being placed on inactive voter rolls or getting their registration record canceled, and ballots not reaching voters or
