Local election offices reportedly received mailed ballots days after the deadline to be counted ‘in nearly every state’

Local election offices reportedly received mailed ballots days after the deadline to be counted ‘in nearly every state’

State and local election officials from across the country on Wednesday warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election, telling the head of the US Postal Service (USPS) that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.

The officials said in a letter that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted.

They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable.

  • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    911·
    2 months ago

    It’s exactly what Republicans wanted by making Louis DeJoy the Postmaster General, right?

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        2 months ago

        It’s complicated, and Congress is taking advantage of that to keep him there. The nine-member United States Postal Service Board of Governors has sole authority to fire, and hire, the Postmaster General. At the moment there are only 7 members, 3 Dems, 3 Reps, 1 Ind. 6 members are required for a quorum.

        Biden has 2 pending nominations and a pending reappointment of an existing governor. There are still 2 governors remaining from Trump’s administration at this point. The Senate confirmed 3 seats in July 2021 and 2 seats in May 2022, and nothing since. They seem to be doing the absolute bare minimum to intentionally delay any possible changes.

        Note that these are not full time government positions like the Postmaster. They only meet once a month usually.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          The Senate confirmed 3 seats in July 2021 and 2 seats in May 2022, and nothing since.

          Crazy. Who is the Senate Majority Leader right now?

    • frickineh@lemmy.world
      24·
      2 months ago

      That’s exactly what he was put there to do. Well, that and just generally disrupt the postal service enough to push people to their more expensive competitors. It’s dramatic but I always joke that he’s my nemesis. I’m just grateful that we have ballot drop boxes all over in CO where I live so that people don’t have to depend on the mail.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        Post Offices are directly mentioned in the constitution as a job of the federal gov. Its so crazy to me how much cover the US media gives republicans when they do their nonsense.

      • cm0002@lemmy.world
        31·
        2 months ago

        Doesn’t seem to be a very good plan, USPS has been consistently delivering all my packages, sending and receiving, on time or even ahead of schedule.

        And I send and receive a lot of packages. I also send and receive FedEx a lot, and they’re also consistently on time, but USPS still beats them on “chance of early delivery”

        I don’t do a whole lot with UPS, I’ve maybe had 4 or 5 packages the past couple months with them and 3 of them were late. UPS sucks.

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          2 months ago

          They didn’t change much. They removed most air/overnight options and they set the delivery standard to the actual real world.

          Air mail gets delayed too often, so they went with a longer but more consistent approach.

  • Kidding_me@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 months ago

    I bet if you hold DeJoy’s position and pay to adequate delivery response, a miracle would happen. Perhaps even a fine/prosecution for election tampering as an added bonus