Officials say delays in election-related mail could disenfranchise voters

Washington — State and local elections officials from nearly half of the states warned the U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday that ongoing issues with election mail delivery could risk disenfranchising voters and urged the service to act quickly to address deficiencies ahead of the presidential election.

In the letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the leaders of various groups representing election administrators raised concerns with the Postal Service’s performance in the run-up to Election Day on Nov. 5. The letter said elections officials have raised questions over the past year about the service’s ability to deliver election mail on time and accurately.

The officials said while there has been “repeated engagement” with the Postal Service, they have not seen “improvement or concerted efforts” to remedy their concerns. Millions of voters are expected to cast their ballots by mail in the weeks before Election Day.

“State and local election officials need a committed partner in USPS,” the officials wrote. “We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service. Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”

They said that despite efforts over the past few years to emphasize the importance of voters requesting and returning mail-in ballots early, local officials in nearly every state are receiving ballots postmarked on time after Election Day, the deadline in many states for them to be received. The election officials said in multiple states, “dozens to hundreds of ballots” were received at least 10 days after they were postmarked.

“There is no amount of proactive communication election officials can do to account for USPS’s inability to meet their own service delivery timelines,” they wrote.

The election officials also told DeJoy that mail sent to voters is being marked as undeliverable at above-normal rates, even when a voter has not moved. The issue has impacted a range of election mail, they said, including mailers with election information, voter address confirmation cards and ballots. The officials said in other instances, ballots sent to election offices are returned to the voter as undeliverable.

Election mail sent back to an election office could trigger a process under federal law that may lead to a voter being deemed inactive and require them to take additional steps to verify their address to vote in the upcoming election, the state and local officials said. The increase in undeliverable mail could lead to the potential disenfranchisement of voters who fail to receive ballots or lead to their voter registration records being canceled, they said.

In addition to concerns about the delivery of election mail, the officials said USPS staff is not informed about the service’s policies, leading to “inconsistent guidance” being given to election officials or ballots being deliberately held, delayed or improperly processed.

The frequency of the training issues, they said, “make it clear these are 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 was sent by the National Association of State Election Directors, the National Association of Secretaries of State and presidents of local election associations on behalf of administrators nationwide.

Appointed during the Trump administration, DeJoy came under scrutiny ahead of the 2020 election over mail-delivery delays. The Census Bureau reported in April 2021 that 69% of voters cast their ballots either by mail or before Election Day, the highest rate of nontraditional voting since 1996.

While voting in 2020 took place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans and Democrats have continued to urge supporters to cast their ballots early. 

Even former President Donald Trump, who has claimed mail-in ballots lead to election fraud, said last month that absentee and early voting are “good options.”