
<p>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&#8217;s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters, telling the head of the U.S. Postal Service, that Biden&#8217;s agency hasn&#8217;t fixed persistent deficiencies.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.”</p>



<p>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.”</p>



<p>“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.”</p>



<p>DeJoy brushed off the election officials&#8217; 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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.”</p>



<p>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.”</p>

Problems With USPS Could Severely Impact Election Results
