Voters are advised to return their ballots early because of mail delay concerns

Voters are advised to return their ballots early because of mail delay concerns toggle caption Nati Harnik/AP This June, the final count in Utah’s Iron County left Jon Whittaker feeling ill. Whittaker, a county clerk who runs elections in the southwestern Utah county, received more than 400 mail-in ballots for the primary that were postmarked after the state’s legal deadline of June 24. “We've been raising these alarms for the past year, but the lack of response and really being able to see any true change throughout that primary cycle made us feel like this was necessary, going public.” While the Postal Service says it is working on improvements and committed to making timely deliveries, it is also recommending mail-in voters take what DeJoy has called “a common-sense measure” — return their paper voter registration forms, absentee ballot applications and completed ballots at least one week before their states’ respective deadlines. “We will be even better prepared for 2024 and will perform admirably again, as we always have.” Why election officials and the USPS’ internal watchdog are concerned The USPS inspector general’s office audited mail operations in 13 states and Puerto Rico during this year’s primary elections and found high on-time processing scores of more than 97% for election and political mail from December 2023 through March of this year. toggle caption Nam Y. Huh/AP The election officials’ letter highlighted similar concerns, noting that the USPS is marking election mail sent to voters as undeliverable at “higher than usual rates, even in cases where a voter is known not to have moved” — a decision that could disenfranchise eligible voters by depriving them of mail-in ballots and lead to the cancellation of eligible voters’ registration. Sponsor Message “Making major operational changes days before a primary election could put ballots at risk,” the report by the inspector general’s office warned, noting that shortly before the last day of voting for Georgia and Virginia’s primary elections this year, the USPS opened a new regional processing and distribution center in Atlanta and changed its local transportation operations for the Richmond, Va., region.