Mail voting faces significant challenges ahead of November

Election officials are warning that mail voting could face delays and disruption if the U.S. mail delivery system fails to fix persistent issues ahead of November’s contests.

In a recent letter to the Postal Service, groups representing election officials nationwide said “serious questions” remain about the agency’s ability to deliver election mail in a “timely and accurate manner,” as November’s elections rapidly near. 

Over the past year, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after state deadlines passed, meaning they couldn’t be counted, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors.

Election mail that was properly addressed was returned as undeliverable, which could automatically turn voters to inactive status. And a “pervasive lack of understanding and enforcement” among Postal Service employees has resulted in inconsistent guidance to election officials and significant delays. 

Despite “repeated engagement” with the Postal Service, no improvements nor concerted efforts to address those concerns have occurred, and the delays and errors sometimes led to the disenfranchisement of voters, the groups said.

“We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service,” the Sept. 11 letter reads. “Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”

Though mail voting has been in use for more than a century and has been expanding for decades in the U.S., it saw an unprecedented boom in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the country.

The process also came under heightened scrutiny amid baseless claims from former President Trump that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud. No evidence has surfaced highlighting significant mail voting fraud, though some allies of Trump are facing charges for pushing false claims about the election.

About 43 percent of American voters cast their ballots by mail in 2020, and 31 percent voted that way in 2022. 

In response to the concerns, U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy said in a letter obtained by The Hill that in 2020, 99.9 percent of ballots were delivered from voters to election officials within seven days. Postal Service records show that number was closer to 99.89 percent. In 2022, there was a similar level of “on-time performance” at 99.93 percent, DeJoy said in the letter.

Yet in some states, that may not be enough.

In 32 states, mailed ballots must be received by Election Day in order to be counted. At least 10 other states require ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received by election officials in fewer than seven days, and several other states set seven days as the deadline. 

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab told DeJoy earlier this month that nearly 1,000 ballots from his state’s Aug. 6 primary were not counted because they arrived too late or without postmarks — and ballots keep rolling in. Kansas counts mail ballots received within three days of the election if postmarked before the close of polls on Election Day.

Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals said earlier this month that the Postal Service’s operational performance is her “biggest concern” with this year’s general election. Virginia will count mail ballots received before noon on the third day after the election, if postmarked by Election Day.

Some of the newfound concern has stemmed from the Postal Service’s effort to “modernize” as it seeks to reduce costs. Part of that process has been the consolidation of dozens of local processing facilities into megacenters across the country. 

Though DeJoy said in May that the agency would pause further consolidations until after the election, processing facilities that have already merged could add days to the process and surpass state deadlines.  

An Postal Service inspector general report from April determined that the opening of a consolidated center in Richmond, Va., created worse service and increased employee absenteeism and late and canceled mail transportation trips. It also found the public was inadequately informed about the changes.

“When I was a county official, we had a processing center in the town right next door. … I could go over there and meet with the postmaster, I could meet with staff and we could work through problems,” said Kim Wyman, former Washington secretary of state.

“Now the USPS is being more efficient, and they’re sending the same ballots to regional facilities that may be out of state for cities or towns that are on a state border,” she said. “That can add one to two days of processing and transit time, so that could impact voters who live in a state that have an election day cutoff.” 

Annie Norman, campaign manager at The Save the Post Office Coalition, said rules and regulations “vary pretty widely” from state to state, which puts burdens on state and local election workers while also causing unequal access to the ballot for voters. 

“We just believe that somebody’s ZIP code shouldn’t determine their ability to participate in democracy,” Norman said.

In his letter response to the election groups, DeJoy said election mail “routinely outperforms” its regular service performance and that the agency believes many concerns raised by the election official groups have already been “discussed and addressed.” He said he’s “confident” in the mail delivery system’s preparations. 

Still, both Wyman and Kathy Boockvar, former secretary of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, urged voters to circumvent any delays by knowing their state’s deadlines and taking initiative to ensure their votes count.

“Voters should be advised: Don’t wait,” Boockvar said. “Ignore the noise about litigation and postal delays and all the different challenges that we have little control over. 

“The best way to solve these issues is for voters to apply for their mail ballots as soon as possible and cast your ballots as soon as possible,” she added.