The hundreds of post-sorting machines recently retired from U.S. Postal Service agencies across the country could determine whether President Donald Trump is re-elected or fired by Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Many of the 671 locking machines that send mail at lightning speeds – including mail-in ballot papers – have been removed from post offices in swing states. In addition to the existing crisis of delayed deliveries plaguing the federal agency, voters could disqualify their ballot papers because they missed the deadlines of their states.
The impact of those delays could help in the decision-making process.
In 2016, just 80,000 voters in three states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – gave Trump the votes for the college he needed to defeat Hillary Clinton, despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million.
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“The shrinking mail service capacity means there will be hundreds of thousands – if not millions” of votes in November that will never arrive on time, “said Daniel Smith, an election expert at the University of Florida. Newsweek. “And the sad truth is, some states don’t even make that data public.”
Of the 671 retired mail sorters that The Washington Post reported were removed in recent weeks from 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, 59 were from Florida, 58 in Texas, 34 in Ohio, 30 in Pennsylvania, 26 in Michigan, 15 in North Carolina, 12 in Virginia and 12 in Wisconsin. In the recent national elections, hundreds of thousands of post-vote votes have been removed due to missed deadlines in various states.
Photo by JASON REDMOND / AFP / Getty
In the 2018 midterm elections, 1.4 percent of the 42.4 million ballots sent were rejected. Of those rejected, 27 percent – more than 160,000 – were not counted because they were late. And in 2016, 23 percent of rejected votes were due to missed deadlines – about 332,000 votes were cast. The actual 2016 statistic was probably higher, but it is unclear by how much because seven states did not report why they rejected absent votes.
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During the presidential election this spring, 84,000 – roughly 21 percent – of Democratic voters who mailed a ballot in New York City were disqualified for a missed deadline, no postmark or signature or for any other reason. In California, more than 70,000 absentee ballots were thrown out because they were late. Smith and Michael McDonald, a colleague at the University of Florida, estimate that more than half a million post-in votes nationwide were rejected because of missed deadlines.
The firing, disabling, dismantling and dismantling of the high-speed mail sorting machines is happening while the head of the USPS is trying to stop Congress’ fears about the ability of its agency to handle the greatly increased volume of post-in-vote handling that is expected due to the pandemic.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Friday tried to assure a nervous congressional panel that his agency was ready, saying he was confident that any vote sent at least seven days before the election would be counted in his intended destination in time. .
“We will track down each plant every night after Election Day,” DeJoy promised. “Very, very confident.”
But DeJoy said none of the disabled machines will be put back into use because “they are not needed.” He cited the decline in traditional paper mail and the increase in parcels as a reason, and he said absentee votes are expected to account for only a fraction of the total mail volume.
Despite DeJoy’s assurances, Democrats have suggested he and President Donald Trump have introduced operational changes to undermine the post-election vote. The USPS has even warned states that absentee voters could become unfranchised. But DeJoy insists the changes were austerity measures, and has vowed to stop taking such measures after the election. The warning has prompted some states to change how they plan to conduct their post-vote.
The states are responsible for conducting the elections, and many have implemented changes to try to counter the problems at the USPS.
Photo by US Senate Homeland Security and Committee of Governmental Affairs / Getty
Maryland moved its absent ballot box applications a week from October 27 to 20. Mail ballots must be postmarked on or before election day and will be counted as long as they are received by November 13th. But voting laws vary from state to state, and many do not accept votes received after election day. The acceptance dates are a matter of law, so any attempt to make them time-consuming and potentially politicized.
As for the three states that will determine the 2016 election, they each said they have implemented changes to prevent hiccups this fall.
The Pennsylvania Department of State is requesting the state Supreme Court to be eligible for ballot papers if they are postmarked by election day and received by Friday following election day. Currently, ballots must be received by Election Day in Pennsylvania, as is the case with most states, according to Smith, including Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina.
“The department’s action is simple in its purpose – to secure the dismissal of eligible voters in Pennsylvania,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar. Newsweek in a statement.
In the 2016 and 2018 elections, Smith said hundreds of thousands of postal votes in Florida “arrived at the last possible moment,” both on election day or the day before, “causing these very fragile votes.”
“The irony is that if you put your check in the email to the IRS, you should have the postmark,” Smith said. “We don’t think about it. That’s not the case when it comes to voting. In Florida, you have more protections that send your check to the IRS to make sure it’s on time.”
Ohio requires a postmark no later than the day before the election, and the ballot must be received no later than 10 days after the election. Texas allows postal ballots to be allowed one day after the election, as long as the postmark is on or before election day. Virginia requires that it be postmarked by Election Day, and will accept it until three days later in the afternoon.
Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney said in an email Newsweek that they have been in close contact with the USPS over the forthcoming elections, and have been told by local Post Office officials that the operational changes already made “will not affect voting on ballot boxes.” In addition, Wisconsin and the Postal Service have worked to integrate barcode tracking for post-in ballots.
“For many years, USPS has advised voters to allow seven days for a vote to reach its destination,” Magney said, “and we have taken that message very seriously in our voter education efforts.”
The Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office said Newsweek that it worked with the USPS to create policies that would ensure that the agency processes all polling stations every day, such as re-checking collection bins for late arrivals, tracking polling stations and keeping absentee ballots afloat, other than routing to a distribution facility in Detroit.
“We will hold the USPS accountable for ensuring that absenteeism in Ohio remains a safe and reliable option for our constituents,” LaRose wrote in a tweet earlier this week.
Correction (8/22/2020, 19:05): An earlier version of this article mentioned Ohio as one of the three states that gave Trump the votes for the electoral college he needed in 2016. We regret the mistake.
