Topline
States began sending out ballots in the November election this week—but election administrators are concerned about whether issues with the U.S. Postal Service will keep them from getting submitted on time, even as the agency insists it’s ready to handle the onslaught of election mail.
Allegheny County workers scan mail-in and absentee ballots in Pittsburgh on Nov. 3, 2022.
Key Facts
Alabama became the first state to start mailing out general election ballots on Wednesday, after North Carolina, the planned first state, delayed its ballot mailings amid a dispute as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fought to remove his name from the ballot after endorsing former President Donald Trump.
USPS issued a press release affirming its commitment to delivering ballots in this election, saying it will impose “extraordinary measures” that it used in the 2020 election to prioritize election mail between Oct. 21 and Nov. 15, and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told the Associated Press the “American people should be confident” about the agency’s ability to handle election mail.
Those measures include having post offices and mail supervisors deliver some last-minute ballots directly to the board of elections, establishing special lines at post offices for voters to have their ballots postmarked and giving post offices the authority to work directly with their local boards of elections to determine processes.
Ballots have to be sent by Election Day in order to be counted, though some states allow ballots to just be postmarked by Election Day and arrive up until a certain number of days later, while others need the ballot to be delivered by Election Day.
Despite those assurances, the National Association of Secretaries of State and National Association of State Election Directors sent a letter to DeJoy on Wednesday about their “concerns” with election mail, calling for the agency to take “take immediate and tangible corrective action” or else risk “limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”
The letter, which USPS told Forbes it will respond to directly, pointed to issues like staff being inconsistently trained on how to handle election mail, delays in mail delivery and a reported increase in mail being returned to election officials as “undeliverable,” also calling for USPS to start its “extraordinary measures” a month sooner than it plans.
The organizations’ letter echoed concerns outlined in a report released by the USPS’ Inspector General in July, which warned ballot delivery could be affected by employees who aren’t properly trained, “inconsistent processes” in handling mail and issues arising from the Postal Service’s 10-year plan to cut costs at the agency, with auditors finding ballots that weren’t delivered and backlogs for mail trucks.
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Chief Critic
“We are ready to deliver,” Adrienne Marshall, USPS’ director of election mail and government services, said in a statement in response to the letter the organizations sent to DeJoy. “We were successful in 2020 delivering a historic volume of mail in ballots; also in 2022 and will do so again in November 2024.” The agency said it has briefed both organizations on its election processes for November as well as individual state officials, and noted election mail often outperforms other mail sent through USPS in terms of delivery times.
How Could Any Delays Impact The Election?
The problems identified by the two organizations and the USPS Inspector General are likely only to affect a small number of ballots, as they’d likely be based on individual employee errors or operational issues at individual plants, rather than a big structural issue nationwide. But that could be enough to sway what’s expected to be a close election. The Inspector General’s report argues the operational issues it encountered at facilities in Virginia and Georgia suggest there’s a risk that individual ballots could not get counted, noting auditors found four ballots the day after the state’s primary that were never sent from the mail facility. They also observed ballots that were not properly postmarked, which in some states is required in order for a mail-in ballot to be counted.
Where Could Delays Have The Biggest Impact?
The state where delays could have the biggest impact for the election is Georgia, a key battleground state that USPS data shows faces particular delays in mail delivery. USPS’ report on mail delivery between April and June found only 40% to 45% of mail in Georgia was delivered on time during that period, based on whether it was two-day or three-to-five day delivery. That marks the lowest rate in the country. Only 85.6% of two-day deliveries and 72.5% of three-to-five day deliveries were made on time last quarter nationwide, according to USPS, with delivery rates in other battleground states of Nevada, Arizona and Michigan being roughly on par with the national average. Mail delivery in Wisconsin was also below the national average—at 70.5% and 67.9% on time based on the delivery window—while Pennsylvania fared the best, with 92.5% and 79.3% of mail delivered on time. Those delay rates aren’t necessarily indicative of how things will play out with election mail given the extra measures, however. USPS’ service dashboard reports approximately 95% of all election mail nationwide has been delivered on time so far in 2024.
Big Number
40.1 million. That’s how many mail-in ballots have already been requested for the general election, according to a tracker compiled by the University of Florida’s Election Lab. As Kennedy continues to wage legal battles in an effort to remove his name from state ballots, it remains to be seen if any other ballots could get delayed in being sent out, as North Carolina’s were.
Tangent
USPS is slated to make additional operational changes in upcoming months as part of its broader plan to reduce costs at the cash-strapped agency, which The Washington Post reports is slated to speed up mail delivery for many Americans, but will slow down delivery for people in rural areas that are more than 50 miles from larger mail processing facilities. Those changes will not affect mail-in ballots, however, as USPS said it will not impose any changes until after the election. The agency also said it will not make smaller changes—like removing collection boxes, which came under controversy in 2020—before the election in order to avoid any suggestion they could influence ballot delivery.
Key Background
Ballots getting delivered on time became a major source of concern in 2020, as DeJoy—a Trump ally, though he wasn’t appointed by the then-president directly—implemented changes at the agency that resulted in mail delays. That sparked a national outcry against the postmaster general, particularly as Americans became reliant on voting by mail during the pandemic. USPS issued a warning to 46 states suggesting ballots may not get delivered on time, and Democrats lashed out against DeJoy, accusing the postmaster general of wielding his influence to benefit Trump. (DeJoy has consistently denied any wrongdoing.) The controversy ultimately went to court and the USPS’ changes were reversed, and the agency also implemented the additional “extraordinary measures,” which resulted in the election being carried out without any major issues in mail delivery. After the election, DeJoy then drew controversy again when he implemented his 10-year “Delivering for America” plan in 2021, which the businessman-turned-postmaster general has insisted is necessary for the USPS to stay financially solvent—even as Democrats slammed the plan for being “unacceptable” in slowing down the mail. While the national furor over DeJoy’s leadership has calmed down in the years since 2020, lawmakers have continued to complain to the postmaster general about various mail delays. DeJoy testified at a Senate hearing in April, where he faced criticisms about various issues with mail delivery and defended the agency’s cost-cutting measures, telling lawmakers it’s “easy to criticize when you show up at a crime scene and see the damage,” but USPS employees were “working very hard to change hearts and minds in terms of how we perform.”
Further Reading
Election officials warn that widespread problems with the US mail system could disrupt voting (Associated Press)
Postal Service Taking New ‘Extraordinary Measures’ To Speed Up Ballot Delivery For Election (Forbes)
U.S. Postal Service Affirms Commitment to Secure and Timely Delivery of Election Mail Ahead of 2024 General Election (U.S. Postal Service)
Postal Service considers rural mail slowdown after election (Washington Post)
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