Problems With USPS Could Severely Impact Election Results
As President Trump continues to warn of 2020 scale election shenanigans this November, last week, state and local election officials from across the country warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters, telling the head of the U.S. Postal Service, that Biden’s agency hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.
During the monumental presidential debate on Sept. 10, Trump would not relent on his claims of widespread problems, if not outright fraud, during the 2020 election. reports like these bolster such claims.
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.”
DeJoy brushed off the election officials’ claims and said the Postal Service is “well positioned” to swiftly deliver election mail despite being in the midst of a network modernization that has caused some delivery hiccups. Mail is currently being delivered in 2.7 days on average, officials said, but the Postal Service is still urging voters not to procrastinate.
The shocking letter to DeJoy was sent by two groups, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors. 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.
Among other issues, the letter 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.”
The officials concluded, “There is no amount of proactive communication election officials can do to account for USPS’s inability to meet their own service delivery timelines. State and local election officials need a committed partner in USPS.”
The democrats are hoping for a situation that doesn’t seem to be their fault. But they won’t do anything to stop it.
Good article.
After the storming of the Capitol, I, and many Democrats have already skipped the USPS. I just drop it at the drop box, on camera, at the polling place.
I can then follow up online to see it’s been received, accepted, tallied, and any other status points they have.
I have the county election folks on speed dial, know them personally, and can call with any questions like the signature fuck up after you guys started screwing with the system.
Not sure whether everyone has online tracking, that really closes the loop. Many folks round here doing the same.
OK, Felon Trump appointed DeJoy, who went about dismantling essential systems in the USPS. How is this not Trump’s own damned fault?
How about all of you contact Federal Express? They now own the USPS. Find out what changes they made, if any and how they plan to stop mail -in fraud. That would be a great help.
Except fedex never owned USPS and USPS is not for sale.
Matter of fact, fedex LOST their USPS cargo contract in early 2024 as the primary USPS air-cargo hauler.
There you go again, telling lies, Frank. The internet was loaded with this information about FedEX buying USPS. There have been many delivery trucks in my city that are using FedEX trucks for mail deliveries as well as the USPS trucks delivering the mail. Every person here has seen this quite often. So where do you get off lying about this, Mr. Reptilian Snake! You will do anything to hurt me to the others commenting on this site. You get back what you give! Liar!
A: No, there is no deal, and IF you can actually FIND an internet source, we all would love to see you show up. Just saying it’s so does not make it so. So, show us.
When you DDGo “FEDEX BUYING USPS:” here’s what you get — nada, bupkiss, squat, *https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fedex+buying+USPS&atb=v442-1&ia=web*
Yes, USPS may use Fedex and vice-versa:, from DDGo: “Yes, USPS and FedEx have a business relationship where USPS leverages FedEx’s network, and FedEx’s SmartPost shipping relies on USPS for local delivery. While USPS does not typically handle FedEx shipments packaged in FedEx envelopes or boxes, they collaborate in certain circumstances.”
Hey, once I dropped a UPS ship in a Fedex box, and Fedex delivered —– does that count? It was a covid test, time sensitive, and they beat the clock!
You called me a snake, you called me a liar. You claim I am hurting you by telling you that you may be wrong. Based on the evidence, that does not seem to be true. More likely the converse, but not going there. Either show us that FEDEX tendered an offer for USPS, or even postulated about thinking about maybe buying USPS or STFU and apologize for your rudeness. Time to step up and stand up.
Oh JSB, bringing up DeJoy is bringing my low fodmap breakfast up. Oh man we cannot let this man take the throne again……
I love the USPS. Once I found the online daily feed, click it to ship it, and stamps over America, I was cut loose from the Post Office and just love these folks. We live in Trumpville NJ with very few African Americans, frankly, lately, more Latino’s, and our mailman is codenamed “lead foot.” Most of NJ’s votes for Trump come from these few counties in the North or South. I jokingly asked lead-foot if his speed is due to being the only black for miles, he laughed and replied it’s the cheap mail wagon and bad muffler. Psst, bull, he nails that gas peddle from 0 to the floor every time. It’s funny because he’s right, lots of noise, little movement, must be 10 horsepower engine. But we have a circular driveway where you can be one foot from the front stoop. So, they just love to deliver to my door and I love USPS package pickup where I can get the package ready myself, put it on the front porch and lead-foot does the rest.
Dejoy did not ruin that, matter of fact, it got much better during covid. Website still a little aged, out of touch, but if issues they have 1-8– or your local post office to help out, and they have every time I tried.
Point is, even with Dejoy, even with the current era of Trump obstruction over early voting, vote by mail, and even absentee ballots, even with Covid changes, it just makes sense NOT TO MAIL, but to drop of at drop box. And given the Trumpers, drop off at one at a risk-free place like your polling place, police station, wherever a drop box is not in the open, by itself, with a long sight line and a bush-filled perimeter. Just common sense in this day and age to remove risk and worry.
Then, like I said, in NJ we can check vote status online to see it’s accepted OR denied, even before the letter that comes in too late gets to your house. Since I already had a signature issue, I even know the folks at the home office :>) They are quite nice, amazing since pretty sure they are Republicans and they know my votes, but we are electoral-acquaintances now. And Dems don’t raise a stink around here, our numbers are so low as to make that impossible. On the signature issue, I wrote to my representatives, noting it well before the national stink, with the adage that it was their vote that was not counted since both are Democrats (our county does not count in federal elections, the rest of the State wipes these Republican votes out so I am me and they are them but we are all the same together. I get wiped here, they get wiped there, it’s all fair. Well, not quite. We gerrymandered these Northern counties just before we got our Democratic Representative, it may have been fair, maybe not, but certainly we got the seat. BUT — Representative Josh Gottheimer blew me off and me saying, “but it’s your vote, your race, your polling place,” but he did not care. Corey Booker referred me to all the places for help at least, but would not take the case. That’s how I met all the fine elections managers who did help, we fixed it, and I found all these marvelous tools to monitor my vote. Also cemented in the fact I would take it to the polling place drop box to remove any risk I can. It’s not that I don’t trust USPS or think them incompetent or understaffed, it’s just taking another link out of the chain of getting my vote to count.
Sad thing is that I have lived in Trump country for 50 years and never thought twice about it. We have had many great discussion about it, laugh with each other at each other, no issues. Had a glassman whose wall was plastered with Tea Party crap. We used to talk all during the shop repair and he never botched the job, broke the glass, or even got upset. Me either. Point is if I move again, I will probably avoid Trump country because it’s just not gentile anymore between the parties. It’s not even fun to talk about the issues as it was. I moved every five years growing up, and continued that until my 30’s, so have moved more than most. NJ, MD, NY, CT, MA, and never an issue. Today, I mostly keep mum, not out of fear, but out of boredom with screaming at each other to no purpose since no one listens anymore.
Bottom line: USPS great, only guys around that do door to door so often, so easy. Great people trying to help. Main-in voting: skip the mail, use a GOOD dropbox, monitor status if you can. Take responsibility for your vote getting there and limit the links in that chain.
Sorry for the drift.
Democraps are behind this mess and all that is crooked and evil!
Does anyone smell a big litigation case initiated by TRUMP lawyers just because it’s what Trump will demand no matter what happens. He is that kind of candidate.
AC: Trump has already concluded he lost and can have one more round of donations IF he brings all sorts of plans and ploys into play. They have been planning to lose since he announced running. He sets the seeds everyday starting with the theory that the only way he can loose is if someone did him some harm, election wise.
What can I say the problem is but maybe it’s like being in Mr. Robinson’s neighborhood. Just perverted.
Like I said, a hot summer with more heat to come