As the fight over postal voting rights grows in the U.S., leading up to the November presidential election, on Friday private companies UPS and FedEx launched calls from social media that they were stepping in to deliver mail-in votes from the U.S. Postal Service.
This comes as USPS warned states of potentially “significant” delays.
In a statement exclusive to Reuters, UPS said (quote):
“State elections must be postmarked to be considered valid and only the USPS has legal postmarking status. Therefore, UPS, FedEx and other private parties may not be technically involved in sending ballot papers. ”
While FedEx replied (quote):
“FedEx accepts individual ballots, and we advise that customers planning to return their ballots through FedEx should closely monitor their state guidelines on absenteeism and voting deadlines as well as related election documents.”
All of this happened while President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was opposed to giving money for the Post Office’s wrestling for postal vote, which is expected to increase to 50% if the coronavirus pandemic warns ahead of the presidential election of 3 November.
The Postal Service said Friday it has written to 46 states and the District of Columbia warn that there is a significant risk that voters will not have enough time to complete and return their ballots.
There are other obstacles that these private companies …
While the USPS touches every U.S. mailbox six days a week, other companies only visit if they have a delivery as a pre-arranged pickup.
The other issue is cost …
According to Tammy Patrick, a former Arizona election official and senior adviser to the Democracy Fund, household costs would increase because supply companies pay significantly more for supplies than the price of a 55-cent stamp, while international costs would be “astronomical”. .
Video transcript
REPORTER: As the fight over postal voting rights grows in the U.S., leading up to the November presidential election, on Friday private companies UPS and FedEx launched calls from social media that they were stepping in to deliver mail-in votes from the U.S. Postal Service. This is because USPS warns states of potentially significant delays.
In a statement exclusive to Reuters, UPS said, quote, state votes must be postmarked to be considered valid. And only the USPS has legal postmarking status. Therefore, UPS, FedEx and other private parties may not be technically involved in shipping ballots.
While FedEx answers, quote, FedEx does not accept individual votes. And we advise that customers planning to return their ballot papers through FedEx should closely monitor their state guidelines on absentee ballots and voting deadlines as well as related election documents.
All of this happened while President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was opposed to giving money for the Post Office’s wrestling for postal voting, which is expected to increase 50% as the coronavirus pandemic awaits the November 3 presidential election. The Postal Service said Friday it has written to 46 states and the District of Columbia warn that there is a significant risk that voters will not have enough time to complete and return their ballots.
There are other obstacles that these private companies would face. While the USPS handles every U.S. mailbox six days a week, other companies only visit if they have a delivery as a pre-arranged pickup.
The other issue is cost. According to Tammy Patrick, a former Arizona election official and senior adviser to the Democracy Fund, household costs would skyrocket because supply companies pay significantly more for supplies than the price of a $ 0.55 stamp, while international cost, quote, would be astronomical.
