'Sounding the alarm': Election officials warn postal delays could invalidate mailed ballots

Election officials and lawmakers are worried that U.S Postal Service delays could prevent thousands of ballots from being counted this year, in what could be an extremely close presidential contest.

State election officials raised alarms in a letter last month to the postmaster general about “exceptionally long delivery times,” ballots being held for billing issues and voter mail being returned as undeliverable.

Delivery delays ticked off members of Congress, who said the consolidation of processing centers led to steep drop-offs in on-time deliveries of first-class mail in Atlanta; Richmond, Virginia; and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

“Voters should never have to worry about if their ballot will be postmarked on time or if their ballot will reach their election center in time to be counted,” said Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers at a House hearing on Sept. 26 that nearly all ballots – more than 99% ? get delivered within seven days, a couple of days slower than the agency's goal of three to five days for first-class mail. Staffers perform “extraordinary measures” such as plucking ballots out of the stream of mail to give them special treatment to get delivered on time, he said.

“We engage in heroic efforts to beat the clock,” DeJoy said.

Election officials, lawmakers and postal officials are urging voters to mail ballots at least seven days before Election Day to ensure they are delivered with enough time to be counted ? despite more than a dozen states having rules that ballots can be mailed as late as Election Day and still be valid.

Here is what we know about concerns with the Postal Service:

'Vote from their couch': Mail-in voting surges in popularity

The spotlight is on mailed ballots because of a huge surge in absentee voting for the 2020 election, during the coronavirus pandemic. The number of mailed ballots more than doubled from 2016 to 2020, jumping from 28.8 million to 66.4 million, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology report. More than 43% of voters mailed their ballots in 2020, up from 24.5% in 2016, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

“They want to vote from their couch. They want to vote from their kitchen table," Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State said. "It’s convenient for them and their families and their lives.”

About 60% of Democrats reported voting by mail in 2020, compared with 32% of Republicans, according to surveys.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has long criticized mail-in voting while occasionally encouraging his supporters to use it. He called the Postal Service “a poorly run mess” in a Sept. 15 post on Truth Social and questioned how it could be trusted with this year’s election.

'A really big deal': Election officials say voting mail increasingly comes back as undeliverable

Most states require mailed ballots to arrive by Election Day. But 14 and the District of Columbia allow a grace period of one to 14 days so long as ballots are postmarked by Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors wrote a letter to DeJoy, the postmaster general, on Sept. 11 outlining their concerns about slow mail delivery. Members of the groups have met with DeJoy twice.

“I would say there are some unresolved concerns,” Simon said after a meeting with DeJoy on Oct. 1. “We just need some continuing assurances that the Postal Service is going to be on top of its game.”

Election officials reported that mail sent to voters ? informational mailers, voter confirmation cards and ballots ? was being returned as undeliverable at higher than usual rates, even when a voter is known anecdotally not to have moved.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., asked the Postal Service's inspector general to open an investigation in June after Fulton County, Georgia, discovered that 1,100 pieces of court mail such as notices or hearings or court orders never reached intended recipients. The inspector general hasn't announced any results yet.

Voters could miss ballots and even be thrown off the registration rolls because of mail returned to sender.

“That particular problem is a really big deal,” Simon said.

'Sounding the alarm': Ballots arriving late could be discarded

Nationwide, in a recent three-month period, the Postal Service delivered 85.6% of first-class mail within two days despite a goal of reaching 93% that fast, according to the agency's inspector general. If voters relied on a ballot getting to an election office that fast, millions of ballots might arrive too late to count.

“That is an enormous number of voters,” said Hans von Spakovsky, an election law expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

State election officials complained about “exceptionally long delivery times” after multiple states reported each receiving between dozens and hundreds of ballots during the primaries that were 10 or more days after their postmarks.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said nearly 1,000 mailed ballots ? 2% of the statewide total for the Aug. 6 primary ? couldn't be counted because they arrived after the state's three-day grace period or without a postmark. More ballots continue to trickle in. The lack of postmarks contradicted the agency’s website, which says the agency's policy is to “postmark all ballots.”

“That’s why we’re sounding the alarm now,” Schwab said.

Only 36% of first-class mail in the Atlanta area was arriving on time in March, although it reached 83% by June, according to Postal Service figures.

DeJoy explained that consolidating postal facilities for greater efficiencies – and shifting thousands of workers from multiple locations to a single new building in Palmetto, Georgia – led to delays.

“We’re going to deliver Georgia’s ballots just fine,” he said.

Lawmakers complained that on-time deliveries in Green Bay and Richmond plummeted 20 percentage points this year under experimental programs, which landed them at the second- and fourth-worst areas in the country for on-time delivery.

DeJoy compared experimental programs to move mail more efficiently with NASA’s rocket testing.

“The first rockets that went to the moon blew up,” he said.

“Thanks for blowing up Wisconsin,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis.

GOP seeks Election Day deadline for mailed ballots

The Republican National Committee filed lawsuits to ensure mailed ballots are filled out correctly and that they aren’t counted unless they arrive by Election Day.

A federal lawsuit filed by the RNC in Mississippi aims to limit mailed ballots that are counted to those that arrive by Election Day, in contrast to a state law allowing a five-day grace period for ballots postmarked by Election Day.

State election officials and Democrats are fighting to keep grace periods for mailed ballots to arrive after Election Day. Members of the military and voters overseas are at greater risk of not having their votes counted because of postal delays, Democrats said.

A U.S. District Court upheld the state’s deadline in July and Republicans appealed. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Sept. 24. Legal experts say the case could reach the Supreme Court.

Mail ballots at least a week before election, officials say

Despite concerns about the postal service, election officials and lawmakers said they didn’t want to discourage anyone from voting by mail.

“I am satisfied that voting by mail is still a very viable and very secure option for the growing number of Americans who choose to vote that way,” Simon said. “I don’t want anyone to get the message that they shouldn’t vote by mail."

Election and postal officials suggested mailing ballots at least a week ahead of Election Day and contacting local offices to confirm they arrived.

“When it’s getting close to Halloween, call that (local election) office and make sure they received your ballot," Schwab said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election officials warn postal delays could invalidate mail-in ballots