Widespread Delays of Postmarked Ballots Raise Concerns About Voter Participation Ahead of Presidential Election

With the election just around the corner, alarming issues with the U.S. Postal Service pose a serious threat to voters.

State and local election officials across the country have expressed deep frustration with the USPS for its ongoing failures to address persistent mail delivery issues, warning that these problems could disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election.  In a call-to-action letter from the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors addressed to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, officials described how properly postmarked and addressed mailed ballots were repeatedly delayed or returned as undeliverable, jeopardizing voter participation.  In many instances, states are receiving postmarked ballots after Election Day and beyond the three to five business days USPS lists as the standard for first-class mail delivery.

The letter comes less than two weeks after DeJoy claimed in an interview that the Postal Service was prepared for a surge in mail ballots.  Since 2020, this voting method has been widely preferred by residents nationwide.  During the global pandemic, election officials reported mailing over 69 million ballots, a significant increase from the previous election.

Despite repeated efforts to engage the USPS, officials noted that the service had failed to make any significant improvements.  The issues were not isolated but systemic, pointing to a troubling lack of understanding and enforcement of USPS policies.  The USPS’s failure to meet its own delivery standards could result in voters being wrongly labeled as inactive, creating unnecessary chaos at the polls.

Officials pleaded for immediate action, but USPS’s response remains disheartening.  With nearly 1,000 ballots in Kansas’s recent election going uncounted due to late or missing postmarks, the situation has reached a critical point, highlighting the ongoing problem with mail-in votes. Election leaders are now questioning the reliability of USPS as a partner in the democratic process, with voters’ trust in mail-in voting hanging in the balance.