Postal workers found three tubs of absentee ballots not counted the day after the Wisconsin primaries. Some Ohio residents did not receive their ballots in time for the election due to mail delays. And in Dallas, the ballots in the absence of some voters sent to the county were returned just days before Election Day, without explanation.
Problems caused by an increase in absentee voting during this year’s primaries are serving as possible warning signs for the U.S. Postal Service of the pandemic.
The concern extends to local electoral offices that may not be used to aspects of the mail, such as the time it takes for packages to arrive at their destinations and how to design their ballots to meet postal standards.
Therefore, the Postal Service regularly sends tips and checklists to thousands of election officials. Local election offices are hiring temporary workers to process absentee ballots, and some local election boards are adding options for voters to deliver their ballots by mail on Election Day.
The Postal Service also recommends that voters request their ballots at least 15 days before Election Day and mail their completed ballots at least one week before the expiration date.
“Voters: We all have the power to improve in November,” said Tammy Patrick, an election expert and senior advisor to the Democracy Fund, a bipartisan group. “Just because you can [wait until] the deadline doesn’t mean you should. “
In a statement to The Washington Post, the Postal Service said it was working closely with state and local election officials to avoid trouble in the fall.
“Because we anticipate that many voters may choose to use mail to participate in the upcoming elections due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are conducting … outreach with election officials and state, county and state secretaries of state local, so they can make informed decisions and educate the public on what to expect by using the mail to vote, “the statement said.
The efforts come as election officials anticipate high turnout in November as a result of the presidential election, along with a dramatic increase in voters choosing to mail their ballot rather than risk exposing themselves to the new coronavirus at polling places. .
The expected increase in mail ballots has put the spotlight on the Postal Service, which is already under scrutiny due to President Donald Trump, who attacked him as a “joke” and made unsubstantiated claims that mail voting is susceptible to fraud. widespread.
Attention has been intensified by a partisan battle over a possible federal agency bailout and the recent appointment of a major Trump donor, Louis DeJoy, as postmaster general. DeJoy announced cost reduction changes in a memorandum Monday, including decreased mail delivery.
Additionally, Ronald Stroman, the deputy postmaster general widely credited with improving relations with election officials in recent years, resigned in June, raising concerns about who will take office under the new post general post and if that person will hold office. same emphasis
“We are concerned that [the Postal Service] It shouldn’t be political, “said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Union of Postal Workers.” Here’s a new postmaster general, and by the way, he’s a megadonor from President Trump. Certainly, on the surface, there is real concern about cronyism and sponsorship and whether someone is setting out to carry out an agenda. We hope that is not the case. “
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Another looming concern for November is the financial condition of the Postal Service, which has faced major financial problems for decades. While the increase in package deliveries during the pandemic has increased revenue, union officials say the increase is likely to be temporary.
Congress increased the Postal Service’s borrowing authority under the Coronavirus Relief Care Act, allowing it to have enough money to operate until at least May 2021, according to a June report from the Pandemic Response Responsibility Committee, comprising 21 offices of the Inspector General. But the agency suffers from significant debt, and the higher debt authority may raise deeper financial concerns, according to the report.
Unions and voting rights advocates urge the Senate to approve a $ 25 billion emergency to the Postal Service to make up for lost revenue related to the coronavirus.
But the Trump administration has threatened to block spending, and Senate Republicans have rejected large chunks of legislation led by House Democrats.
Wendy Fields, executive director of the voting rights group Democracy Initiative, said the additional funding would not only help the Postal Service, but also thousands of election officials who trust the agency: “This is an investment in the entire electoral process. “
The goal is to avoid problems like those that developed earlier this year in multiple states.
The day after the Wisconsin primary, postal workers at a processing center found about 1,600 ballots that were never delivered to the Appleton and Oshkosh communities, according to a report by the Wisconsin Election Commission on absentee voting in the April primaries.
“The sheer volume of absentee applications for the April 2020 election magnified the effect of typically small concerns that normally presented minor problems,” according to the report.
At Fox Point, near Milwaukee, some ballots that were mailed through the Postal Service were returned to village officials without explanation, rather than released to voters. Village officials said it is unclear how many voters were affected by the mail problems.
The Postal Service’s internal investigation into Wisconsin issues found that the agency generally followed its procedures, but needed to improve communication and coordination with local election officials.
Since then, Fox Point and Postal Service officials have been working to avoid encountering the same problems for the November election, when they anticipate that more voters will choose to vote by mail, said Scott Botcher, village manager. Residents called in mid-June to confirm that they had received their ballots for the upcoming August 11 elections, he said.
“A lady called and said, ‘Good grief, I already have my ballot, thank you very much.’ Everyone knows that last time we had problems,” Botcher said.
Wisconsin is among the states that are adopting smart mail barcodes for the November election, to avoid mail tracking problems that several counties faced in the spring. Such barcodes allow voters and election officials to track ballots in real time while on the go. This system is expensive, but it will ease the workload of county employees who receive multiple calls from voters asking about the status of their ballots, authorities said.
In Ohio, state officials closed most polling places for the primaries due to the pandemic and extended the deadlines to give voters until the Saturday before the election on Tuesday to request their ballots by mail.
That meant that the ballots had to travel to the voters and return within two business days. However, some took up to nine days and were not returned in time to be counted, according to the secretary of state. In one county, no more than 300 delayed ballots were counted, and advocates say the number is likely higher in the state’s 88 counties.
In a new report, the Postal Service expressed concern about new voting deadlines for states that do not meet postal guidelines and warned of possible nationwide delays for general elections if those deadlines are not changed.
Whether ballots are mailed in time for the count depends on several factors, including differences in delivery times for first-class mail, which is faster and takes two to five days, compared to standard marketing, which can take up to 10 days to deliver.
Before the Texas election this week, some Dallas voters who had mailed their votes to the county were inexplicably receiving their ballots in the mail a few days before the election.
The Postal Service said in a statement that the ballots were returned due to a problem with the way the return envelopes were printed, highlighting the variety of complex challenges that state and local officials may face.
