(TheProudRepublic.com) – State and local election officials from across the U.S. sounded the alarm this week about issues with the nation’s mail delivery system that could put votes at risk in the upcoming presidential election.
They told U.S. Postal Service (USPS) officials that persistent problems have not been fixed.
In a concerning letter, the officials explained that over the past year, including during the recent primary season, ballots that were postmarked on time often arrived at local election offices days after the deadline.
They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned as undeliverable, potentially putting voters into inactive status through no fault of their own. This could cause chaos when those voters try to cast their ballots.
Moreover, the officials said that repeated attempts to resolve these issues with the Postal Service have failed. They argued that these problems are not isolated but show a widespread lack of understanding and enforcement of USPS policies among its employees.
Two groups representing top election administrators from all 50 states sent a letter to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. They told DeJoy, “We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns.”
“We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service,” they added. “Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”
In response, the Postal Service reiterated DeJoy’s assurance that it was prepared to handle election mail despite ongoing network modernization, which has caused some delivery issues. Officials said mail is currently being delivered in an average of 2.7 days but urged voters not to wait until the last minute.
In turn, this letter comes less than two weeks after DeJoy assured in an interview that the Postal Service was ready to manage the expected influx of mail ballots for this November’s presidential election.
In 2020, during the global pandemic, election officials mailed out just over 69 million ballots, a significant increase from previous years. While this number may be lower now, many voters still rely on mail voting.
In addition, the officials warned that any election mail returned as undeliverable could trigger a federal process for maintaining accurate voter lists.
According to the letter, this means a voter could be moved to “inactive” status and might need to verify their address to vote.
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