“Issues” at the United States Postal Service could impact the upcoming presidential election and disenfranchise voters, state and local officials representing all 50 states warned in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
In the letter to DeJoy, election officials across the nation highlighted “serious questions about processing facility operations, lost or delayed election mail, and front-line training deficiencies impacting USPS’s ability to deliver election mail in a timely and accurate manner.”
According to election officials, USPS staff are “uninformed” about election mail policies, leading to “ballots being deliberately held to remediate erroneous billing issues, significantly delayed, or
otherwise improperly processed.”
“In some cases, this has resulted in mis-delivery of ballots such that voters are disenfranchised,” the officials warned.
Officials acknowledged the challenges associated with training the USPS’ over 600,000 employees, but warned the “frequency and widespread distribution of training-related issues” makes it clear “these are not one-off mistakes or a problem with specific facilities.”
The officials insisted the problems demonstrate “a pervasive lack of understanding and enforcement of USPS policies among its employees.”
“State and local election officials need a committed partner in USPS. We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service,” the letter states. “Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”
Adrienne Marshall, the USPS’ director of election mail and government services, said in a statement that the service is “ready to deliver” and highlighted its “success” during the 2020 election.
“We were successful in 2020 delivering a historic volume of mail in ballots; also in 2022 and will do so again in November 2024,” she said, according to CBS News.
