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Postal service alerts 46 that delayed mail-in ballots might disenfranchise their voters

 The United States anticipates an explosion of absentee ballots Recently, the postal service sent out informative letters to 46 states and D.C. Alert that it can not guarantee that all ballots cast by mail will arrive in time for the November election to be counted — creating yet another layer of confusion ahead of the presidential high-stakes competition.

The letters outline a bleak probability for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even though people obey all the voting laws in their state, their ballots may be excluded by the speed of delivery of the postal services.

The alerts from the Postal Service about possible disenfranchisement came as the agency undergoes a dramatic restructuring of structure and strategy in the midst of desperate financial conditions. Cost-cutting moves have already delayed mail delivery in some areas by as much as a week, and a recent plan to decommission 10 percent of the sorting machines of the Postal Service has caused widespread concern the slowdowns would only worsen. Rank-and - file postal staff argue the move is untimely and could dramatically diminish the pace of flat mail delivery including letters and ballots.

Show U.S. letters Sent by post to States

The ballot notices given by Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service at the end of July, and obtained via a request for documents from The Washington Post, were prepared prior to the appointment of Louis DeJoy, a former logistics executive and President Trump's ally, as postmaster general in early summer. They go beyond traditional coordination between the Postal Service and election officials, drawn up as fears surrounding the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented and sudden shift to mail-in voting.

USPS sent a heightened alert to most states

Some states expect the regular amount of election mail ten times higher.Six counties, with D.C. Warnings received that a small collection of voters could delay the ballots. But the Postal Service gave 40 others — including the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida — more-serious warnings that their long-standing deadlines for requesting, returning or counting ballots were “incongruous” with mail service and that voters who send ballots in close to those deadlines may become disenfranchised.

"The Postal Service asks election officials and voters to consider how the mail works in a realistic way," said Martha Johnson, a USPS spokeswoman, in a statement.

In reaction to the warnings from the Postal Service, a few states have rapidly pushed deadlines — forcing voters to request or cast ballots sooner, or opting to delay tabling results while waiting for more ballots to arrive.

Election officials in Pennsylvania cited their letter late Thursday asking the State's Supreme Court for permission to count ballots submitted three days after Election Day. Yet deadlines in many other states, with just weeks left before the first absentee ballots reached the mail stream, can not or can not be changed. More than 60 lawsuits over the mechanics of mail-in voting in at least two dozen states are going their way through the courts.

Trump has repeatedly alleged, without justification, that mail ballots contribute to widespread voter fraud, and politicized the USPS in the process. Despite of Democratic attempts to increase mail voting, he said this week he opposes emergency support for the organization — which has regularly sought more money.

The systemic disruption of the Postal Service alone has caused both parties' analysts and policymakers to worry about the prompt distribution of prescription drugs and Social Security checks, as well as ballots.

"The delay is another weapon in the voting discrimination toolbox," said Celina Stewart, senior advocacy and litigation director with Women Voters' nonpartisan League.

"That's just no trick. We do believe this is a tactic of vote-suppression.

Vanita Gupta, an official at the Obama administration's Justice Department and now president and chief executive of the Civil Rights Leadership Conference, said she regarded the situation as "the armament of the U.S. Postal provision for the political purposes of the State.

"This is utterly ridiculous for the U.S. That is where the postal service is in, "Gupta said.

Senior Postmaster Louis DeJoy.(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

DeJoy has drastically reduced overtime in service changes last month and banned additional trips to ensure on-time mail delivery. His wholesale reorganizations have ousted several agency veterans in key operational roles

And, according to a grievance filed by the American Postal Workers Union and obtained by The Washington Post, the USPS is currently decommissioning 10 per cent of its costly and bulky mail-sorting machines, which workers say could hinder the processing of election mail. Scattered throughout the country but concentrated in high-population areas, these 671 computers have the capability to handle 21.4 million pieces of paper mail every hour.

Vote-by-mail ballots sit in a sorting tray at King County election headquarters this month in Renton, Wash. Washington, one of five states that have long conducted universal vote-by-mail elections, did not receive a serious warning from the USPS about ballot delivery times.

Machine reductions, along with existing mail delays and a surge in packages — a boon to the finances of the Postal Service but a headache for an organization designed to handle paper instead of boxes —This also runs the risk of slowing the department as the elections approach and has prompted legislators to put pressure on DeJoy to revoke his directives.

In a letter to USPS staff on Thursday, DeJoy wrote that temporary delivery slowdowns were "unintended consequences" of his efficiency steps but that the "discipline" he introduced to the agency "will improve our success for the election and the upcoming peak season and sustain the high degree of public confidence that we have received throughout our history for dedication and loyalty to our customers."

DeJoy declined to be interviewed, but the USPS described machine reductions as "routinely" shifting equipment to meet the mix of packages and letters in the mail stream in a statement. Doing so "will guarantee our customers more secure , cost-effective operations and better service," the statement said.

Even without the emergency funding Trump promised to block, postal workers can handle adequate preparation of the country's mail-in ballots, their union leader said.

"Piece of cake for postal workers," said US Postal Workers Union president Mark Dimondstein.

Johnson, the spokesperson for the USPS, also said the organization "is well trained and has enough capacity to distribute the mail for the American election."

The letters to state outlining November issues accompanied ramped-up voting-by-mail primaries marred by serious distribution problems. This "presented a need to re-emphasize the advice of the Postal Service to officials at the polls," Johnson said.

A 17-fold rise in mail-in ballots in New York City , for example, left the outcome of a primary congressional election in question for six weeks in June.

Johnson, the spokeswoman for the USPS, also said the department "is well trained and has enough capacity to distribute the election mail to America."

The letters to state outlining November problems accompanied ramped-up voting-by-mail primaries marred by significant distribution issues. It "presented a need to re-emphasize the guidelines of the Postal Service for officials in elections," Johnson said.

For example , in New York City a 17-fold rise in mail-in ballots left six weeks in doubt for results of a primary congressional race in June.

During court quarreling about it, USPS staff said election officials had dropped off 34,000 blank absentee ballots on the day before the election at a Brooklyn sorting center, leaving postal employees scrambling in an effort to deliver them overnight. After the voting, some voters obtained ballots, and tens of thousands of votes were initially thrown out because of lost receipts.

The letters warning about November caution many state that their deadlines for voters to request an absentee ballot are too close to Election Day and that "the Postal Service can not adjust its delivery standards to meet state election law requirements."

The letters entrust election officials with the responsibility of changing deadlines or encouraging voters to act long before them.

A volunteer in Glastonbury, Conn., collects mail-in ballots on Tuesday, the state's primary day.

A volunteer in Glastonbury, Conn., collects mail-in ballots on Tuesday, the state's primary day. (AP / Jessica Hill)

Meanwhile, mail carriers have warned that recent cost-cutting steps at the USPS are slowing mail ballot distribution in key states. Recent contests gave a snapshot of the possible implications, with voters complaining — especially in urban areas like Detroit and the Bronx — that their absentee ballots did not arrive until the last minute, or at all.

The issues predate the cost-cutting measures — a late returned ballot was the key cause for absentee or invalid mail ballots during the 2016 election, according to the U.S. Data presented to Congress by the Election Assistance Commission.

But this year's vote-by-mail ballot onslaught, driven by directives to stay home and practice social distancing during the pandemic, has increased the volume of delays. Early-June primary in D.C., election officials rode hand-delivering ballots across the town because the postal service wasn't fast enough. 18,500 mailed ballots arrived in Florida too late to be counted during March primary.

Across Pennsylvania, hundreds of thousands of late ballots were counted only after courts interfered.

Eighteen states, plus the D.C. After the pandemic, ease or extend access to mail ballots, enabling the electorate concerned to prevent possible exposure to the virus in polling places. According to a count by The Washington Post, these policy changes have brought the number of Americans eligible to cast postal or absentee ballots in the general election to a record high of almost 180 million, about 97 million of whom would either obtain an absentee ballot or an absentee ballot application form in the postal.

The examination of the USPS letters to states shows that the probability of rejection of the ballot due to missed delivery deadlines may be the greatest for voters in 40 states that issued significant warnings. There are about 159.5 million registered voters residing in those counties.

Vote-by-mail ballots remain this month in Renton, Wash, in a sorting tray at King County's election headquarters. Washington, one of five states that have been holding compulsory voting-by-mail elections for a long time , did not receive a significant warning from the USPS about the distribution times of the vote.

Vote-by-mail ballots remain this month in Renton, Wash, in a sorting tray at King County's election headquarters.

Washington, one of five states that have been holding compulsory voting-by-mail elections for a long time , did not receive a significant warning from the USPS about the distribution times of the vote. (AP / Ted S. Warren)

According to the letters, the danger of disenfranchisement is greater for electors waiting to request or cast a vote until close to Election Day. The letters advised 31 states that voters should mail ballots no later than Oct. 27 — a week before Election Day — regardless of their deadlines, if they want to guarantee that they are counted.

Across the world, election officials are also building drop boxes for completed ballots and encouraging voters to use them instead of the postal services.

The USPS gave no significant notices to the five states that have been conducting compulsory voting-by-mail elections for a long time — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

The USPS delivered a safe health bill for Nevada, which Trump accused in May of seeking to "cheat" in elections after unveiling plans to hold a gubernatorial primary by mail. For the general election, the state plans to mail ballots to all the eligible voters.

"Under our reading of the electoral laws of Nevada, it seems your voters should have enough time to collect, complete, and return their ballots by the deadlines of the state," the letter said.

Trump tweeted Wednesday: "Nevada has ZERO Mail-In Voting infrastructure. If the Courts do not end it will be a corrupt disaster. It'll take months to find out, or years.

Furthermore, postal staff are worried about the continuing elimination of mail sorting machines in places that are expected to be fiercely challenged in the presidential election.

Reduction in Postal Service capacity

Every hour the machines — Automated Facer-Canceler Systems, Delivery Bar Code Sorters, Automated Flat Sorting Machines, and Flat Sequencing Systems — can mark and sort tens of thousands of paper mail items, such as letters, bills, and ballots.

Bought when letters and not parcels make up a greater share of postal service, the heavy and ageing devices may be costly for postal leaders to maintain and take up space on the floor suggest they would be better dedicated to boxes. Removing underused machines would make the system more efficient overall, say the postal leaders. When mail volume started to fall in the 2000s, the USPS has cut back on mail-sorting facilities for years.

Yet the machines radically changed some postal workers' task, enabling them to spend more time on the street delivering mail, rather than arranging it in post offices.

Election officials in several states contacted by The Washington Post said their deadlines for mail voting had been in place for years and the Postal Service had noticed some concerns about meeting them for a long time. The warnings were met with cynicism by some officials, others with resignation.

"This is a conversation with the Postal Service that I know has been going on for at least five years," Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) said. Although the deadlines have not changed, "the Postal Service has changed as we all know it," he said. "Returning the mail in a timely fashion has become much more inefficient and far more ineffective. That's been going on for several years.'

Wisconsin's deadlines had been set years ago, when it was reasonable to expect a letter dropped in the mail to arrive two days later in another part of the state, election officials said this week. But with increasingly slower delivery times and no recourse for bureaucrats to change the deadlines, elections officials are focusing on what they can do — encouraging voters to take on more responsibility to request and cast mail-in ballots early, as well as installing drop boxes and implementing a bar code tracking system for voters to monitor their ballots.

Teaching the electorate "needs a more aggressive program," said Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe.

The state also encourages local election officials responsible for mailing out the ballots to coordinate with local post offices more than ever before.

In response to the USPS letter, Arizona updated its advice for a spokeswoman for Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) wrote in an email when voters would mail back their completed ballots, from at least six to at least seven days before the election. Maryland has pushed the long-standing deadline for referendum applications back a full week.

"It was the Postal Service trying to cover itself up," said of the letter Patrick J. Hogan, a Democrat and vice president of the Maryland State Board of Elections.

He opposed the move to the deadline anyway, claiming it wasn't worth the chance of missed ballots.

"We have to work like this," he said. "We have to get people to come to terms with getting things done early. There's no reason this year not to vote.'

Missouri State Secretary Jay Ashcroft (R) said the warning to his state seemed to be a "typical CYA exercise" that overlooked legislative reforms in his state and advertising strategies aimed at alleviating the burden on USPS during the election season.

Missouri moved up its deadline in 2018 to request an absentee ballot to provide additional time for the delivery and return of ballots, he said.

Ashcroft said there are special measures underway to allow voters to get and file their absentee ballots with time to spare, thanking local election officials for running three smooth votes so far this year.

"I didn't see how effective it was at all," he said of the letter to the USPS, adding: "It isn't anything new for us. It's something we worked on for years, and I think we were ahead of it. We 're in the stupid season of politics for USPS to give it out at the end of July.

Reading from the letter, Ashcroft rejected a suggestion that Missouri voters who mail their finished ballots "not later than Tuesday, October 27," be confident of Election Day 's arrival. He recalled a voter's experience in St. Louis during the state's June municipal contests — she dropped her ballot in the mail six days before the race, he said, but it took 14 days to reach an address in the same city and wasn't counted as a result.

"If you're sending it out on Tuesday, you 're not sure it's going to get back in time," he said. "On fact, I know that."

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