"When you control the mail, you control elections!"
Posted on 09/12/2024 1:09:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State and local election officials from across the country on Wednesday warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election, telling the head of the U.S. Postal Service that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.
In an alarming letter, the officials said that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted. They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable, a problem that could automatically send voters to inactive status through no fault of their own, potentially creating chaos when those voters show up to cast a ballot.
The officials also said that repeated outreach to the Postal Service to resolve the issues had failed and that the widespread nature of the problems made it clear these were “not one-off mistakes or a problem with specific facilities. Instead, it demonstrates a pervasive lack of understanding and enforcement of USPS policies among its employees.”
The letter to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy came from two groups that represent top election administrators in all 50 states. They told DeJoy, “We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns.”
“We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service,” they added. “Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”
A message seeking a response from the U.S. Postal Service was not immediately returned.
The two groups, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors, said local election officials “in nearly every state” are receiving timely postmarked ballots after Election Day and outside the three to five business days USPS claims as the standard for first-class mail.
The letter comes less than two weeks after DeJoy said in an interview that the Postal Service was ready to handle a flood of mail ballots expected as part of this November’s presidential election and as former President Donald Trump continues to sow doubts about U.S. elections by falsely claiming he won in 2020.
That year, amid the global pandemic, election officials reported sending just over 69 million ballots in the mail, a substantial increase from four years earlier.
While it’s likely that number will be smaller now, many voters have embraced mail voting and come to rely on it. And both Democrats and Republicans have launched efforts to push supporters to vote early, either in person or by mail to “bank” their votes before Election Day on Nov. 5.
The letter went out on the day the first mailed ballots of this year’s general election were being sent, to absentee voters in Alabama.
Postal Service officials told reporters last month that almost 98 percent of ballots were returned to election officials within three days in 2020, and in 2022, the figure was nearly 99 percent. DeJoy said he would like to inch closer to 100 percent this election cycle and that the Postal Service is better positioned to handle ballots than four years ago.
But officials in rural states have been critical of the Postal Service for years as it has consolidated mail-processing centers to cut its costs and financial losses.
In addition to being signed by the current and incoming presidents for both groups of election officials, the leaders of groups that represent local election officials in 25 states were listed.
The election officials warned that any election mail returned to an election office as undeliverable could trigger a process outlined in federal law for maintaining accurate lists of registered voters. That means a voter could be moved to “inactive” status and be required to take additional action to verify their address to participate in the election, the officials said in the letter.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, the recent past president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, sent his own letter in recent days to DeJoy. He said nearly 1,000 ballots from his state’s Aug. 6 primary election couldn’t be counted because they arrived too late or without postmarks — and more continue to come in.
“The Pony Express is more efficient at this point,” Schwab posted on the social media platform X in late August.
Schwab and other Kansas election officials also have said some ballots arrive on time but without postmarks, which keeps them from being counted under Kansas law. What’s more, Schwab told DeJoy, local postal clerks have told election officials that they can’t add postmarks later even if it’s clear that the Postal Service handled the ballot ahead of the mail-in deadline.
Kansas will count ballots postmarked on or before Election Day if they arrive within three days. The Republican-controlled Legislature created that grace period in 2017 over concerns that mail delivery had slowed after the Postal Service shut down seven mail-processing centers in the state. That left much of the state’s mail handled through larger centers in Denver, Amarillo, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri.
Schwab has promoted the use of local ballot drop boxes for voting in advance, breaking with other Republicans who have suggested without evidence that they can be sources of fraud. Schwab has long said the boxes are more secure than the U.S. mail.
“Keep your ballot out of the hands of the federal government!” he advised voters in a post on X after the August primary.
In their letter Wednesday, election officials said colleagues across the U.S. have reported that Postal Service staff, from managers to mail carriers, are uninformed about the service’s policies for handling election-related mail, give them inconsistent guidance and misdeliver ballots.
“There is no amount of proactive communication election officials can do to account for USPS’s inability to meet their own service delivery timelines,” the officials wrote. “State and local election officials need a committed partner in USPS.”
Then no one should vote by mail.
I have some doubts about this:
“...mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted.”
I suspect it’s an excuse for fabricated ballots to be accepted late and counted.
Nice of USPS to tell us in advance what they’ve been ordered to do.
Yep, we’ve been warned. Vote in person!
And that is why the law of the land should rrequire people who want to vote to get off their duffs and go down to their friendly neighborhood polling place. I have done that every election since 1976. No biggie.
Indeed, if you cannot make the effort to get up and go to the polls (those out of state excepted) I do not want your vote.
Aha!
There have been delivery issues with most absentee ballots over the years, especially the overseas ballots of our military. Every election, Democrats round up their teams of lawyers to get as many overseas military ballots rejected as possible. For some reason the postal service has a problem getting overseas ballots to their respective county offices on time to be counted. They know that most of those ballots will be for the Republican candidate, and will do everything they can to eliminate them.
Nice of USPS to tell us in advance what they’ve been ordered to do.
~~~
When was the last time we had mail problems?
2020!
What a coincidence!
Back in 2020 they blamed covid.
What’s their excuse this year????
The cheater’s underpants are showing.
There actually ARE people who can’t get to the polls due to illness, disability, etc. I was among them one year.
And of course PBS is happy to oblige with the news!!
"When you control the mail, you control elections!"
We need Election Day to be just that: the day you go to vote. The only exception would be the military stationed abroad. People electing to live aboard can’t vote absentee ballot. There should be no early voting. If we have an Election Day, employers would embrace it and let workers off for a half day, or maybe all businesses are closed on that day.
Every country in Europe and South American that tried mail-in ballots no loner uses them. The reason: rampant fraud. Since voting laws are controlled at the state level, the states have the power to change this without Congress. They should make the change...yesterday.
Bit pf course!
Trump will win and then I can die in peace. I've just been hanging on.
There are many things that must be done, and I hope that DJT and JDV can MAGA for decades.
9/9/24
ROBINSON, Ill. — Midwest Transport Inc. (MTI), an Illinois-based trucking and logistics company, which contracted with the United State Postal Service (USPS) to haul mail has reportedly notified its employees, including more than 480 drivers, that the carrier is ceasing operations, according to sources familiar with the closure.
(It’s rough out here)
Of course..what they mean is they have to hold onto ballots til they determine how many ballots the dems need to steal the election than POOF guess what, they have the ballots. there is a reason why Dem areas always post their results LAST..why the GOP districts dont do that I dont understand
This election is going to be a joke and a mess. Maybe the idea is to keep us from getting any decent result.
You can also just show up and vote in person like you did 8 years ago.
I worked at the post office a few years ago before retiring and it is massively understaffed. What is the post master going to do? Force people to work there ? Regular carriers are already doing 70+ hours a week
Why WOULDN’T the USPS disrupt voting this time around? They helped the cheat in 2020.
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