A group of state and local election officials from around the United States are warning the U.S. Postal Service that mail delivery problems and inadequate staff training could disenfranchise voters as municipalities prepare for the 2024 election .
"Over the course of the last year, election officials across the country have raised serious questions about processing facility operations, lost or delayed election mail, and front-line training deficiencies impacting USPS’s ability to deliver election mail in a timely and accurate manner," the officials wrote in a Wednesday letter to USPS Postmaster Louis DeJoy obtained by the Washington Examiner.
"We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service," the officials added. "Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process."
The officials, led by the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State, argue that widespread problems with the USPS could disrupt voting. According to the groups, election officials have complained over the past year, including the 2024 primary season, that mailed ballots postmarked on time were received days after the deadline.
In several cases, properly addressed election mail was also marked undeliverable, a problem that could send eligible voters into inactive status and lead to confusion and chaos when said voters try to cast a ballot. Officials reported that ballots were being deliberately held due to "erroneous" billing problems, significantly delayed, or improperly processed, leading to misdelivery of ballots or other things like "critical election information" or voter address confirmation cards.
"Thus, the increase in undeliverable mail raises two significant issues: (1) the potential disenfranchisement of voters whose ballots are not delivered to them or to their election office, and (2) putting eligible voters on the path to having their voter registration record canceled," the officials wrote.
The officials argued that repeated outreach to the USPS asking the agency to resolve the problems has failed and the widespread occurrences in "nearly every state" 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 officials wrote.
The letter from the elections associations comes less than two weeks after DeJoy told the Associated Press in an interview that the USPS is prepared to handle the influx of mail ballots expected for the 2024 presidential election, particularly as former President Donald Trump and some of his allies continue to doubt the integrity of U.S. elections and refuse to concede he lost the 2020 election.
While typically championed by Democrats, Republicans have started to embrace mail-in voting after years of disparaging the practice as a path to potential voter fraud. Wednesday also marks the first day that general election mailed ballots are being sent out to absentee voters in Alabama, as the Nov. 5 contest is less than two months away.
“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 in their letter. “State and local election officials need a committed partner in USPS.”
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Election integrity will be a focal point of the 2024 election, particularly in states like Arizona that were at the center of Trump's debunked 2020 election fraud claims. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans are trying to push their voter integrity bill, the SAVE Act, into law by tying it to a spending deal to avoid a government shutdown.
In a hearing on Wednesday, Republicans on the House Administration Committee grilled secretaries of state from six states on their work to ensure safe and secure elections. GOP lawmakers have argued that the SAVE Act could improve voters' confidence that noncitizens will not be voting in federal elections, something that is already against the law.
The Washington Examiner reached out to USPS for comment.
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