USPS problems could impact voting if widespread, election officials warn

State and local election officials warned in a letter on Wednesday that they have observed widespread problems with the United States Postal Service over the last year, including during the recent primary elections, that could disrupt mail-in voting during the crucial 2024 presidential election season.

In the letter to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, numerous officials said they had observed significant numbers of mail-in ballots that were postmarked on the deadline for voting but did not arrive until days after the deadline and could not be counted.

Election mail that was addressed properly was also returned as undeliverable, the officials said. This could make voters inactive and cause problems when they show up to vote in person.

The officials said they had repeatedly reached out to the post office for help with the issues, but that the issues could not be resolved.

"Pervasive"

The problems are not “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 said.

“We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns,” the two groups who sent the letter on behalf of officials in all 50 states said.

“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.”

Problems like this as well as an increased risk of outright fraud are why former President Donald Trump previously encouraged his supporters to vote in person and avoid mail-in voting.

He has since backtracked on that stance because of the pervasiveness of mail-in voting and the fact that some votes could be lost without it.

Vote early

While the letter highlighted incompetence and neglect as the main factors behind the problems at USPS, there could also be partisans on either side who might try to disrupt voting in a fraudulent way as well.

Less than two weeks ago, DeJoy said in an interview that USPS was ready to handle the coming flood of mail-in ballots.

More than 69 million absentee and mail-in ballots were sent through the mail in 2020, a significant increase that was attributed to COVID-19 and some Americans' fear of being in close proximity to others, such as in a voting center.

The number in 2024 is likely to be smaller, but could still be significantly more than in elections before 2020.

Both Republicans and Democrats are encouraging voters to send their ballots well before the deadline and to track it to make sure it is received before Election Day.

Significant problems could be game-changers in some cases. For example, in Kansas, more than 1000 ballots were received too late to be counted in 2022.