Time has uncovered a previously unreported glitch the United States Postal Service experienced, where a national change of address system stopped fully updating, impacting 1.8 million address changes. The change of address system is used by most states to keep their voter rolls current, and as states begin to send out mail-in ballots, it is unclear how many people will be affected or how it will impact the election.
It is especially crucial right now, with many people moving during the pandemic and the looming election in November, for Americans to be able to update their address. According to a Pew.com survey, as of early June, about 3% of adults had moved, and 6% had someone move in with them due to the pandemic. During normal times, hundreds of thousands of people move every week.
The issue, which occurred for three weeks in August, comes at a time when states are preparing to send out mail-in ballots. For example, Minnesota sent out ballot applications by mail in early September based in part on information drawn from the outdated information provided by the database in August.
43 states plus the District of Columbia use the USPS change of address database, and when Time reached out to several states, they were unaware of the issue.
According to the USPS, the address issue was fixed, and information was restored on September 14. Martha Johnson, a spokesperson for the USPS, said the issue did not have any impact on the ability of mail to be forwarded from an old address to a new address, but some states do not allow for ballots to be forwarded.
Johnson says the USPS has implemented changes to the NCOALink system to prevent the problem that occurred in August from happening again.
“Additional enhancements being implemented into NCOALink quality control processes will detect future occurrences of this type,” Johnson told Time.
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