The United States Postal Service has been changing how it handles mail, especially in the lead-up to the upcoming midterm election. These adjustments involve consolidating operations into regional centers to cut costs, but they have raised concerns among lawmakers and election officials. Election workers have warned that these changes could delay when postmarks are applied to ballots, even if the mail is sent on time. This issue has already affected voters in recent primaries, with thousands of ballots being rejected due to late postmarks in Oregon’s May primary.
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said that many voters were not heard simply because their ballots arrived too late through the mail, according to the Boston Herald. The changes are especially concerning in Western states like Washington and Oregon where mail-in voting is common and widely used. President Donald Trump has often criticized mail-in voting, despite having voted by mail himself.
Read is asking for emergency funds to place more ballot drop boxes in areas where they are hard to reach. Washington’s secretary of state has already spent around $300,000 to help counties add 21 new drop boxes this year.
In two rural Washington counties that have consistently supported Trump, more than 4% of all ballots were rejected for late postmarks during the recent primary. Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington said it was ironic that these postal changes might affect some of Trump’s most loyal voters.
She added that the Postal Service is disenfranchising voters by leaving them with ballots that were cast but never counted. In December, the Postal Service clarified a rule about postmarks, stating they reflect when mail was processed rather than when it was first received. Because processing centers are now farther away due to consolidations, this can cause delays in postmarking ballots.
Some areas are now more than 200 miles from a postal distribution center, which affects how quickly ballots get postmarked. The Postal Service has advised voters to mail their ballots early to avoid these issues. They also said that anyone can go into a post office and request a manual stamp on their ballot for free.
The agency recommends mailing ballots at least one week before the deadline to be safe. In Washington, the number of late-postmarked ballots rose last year after the postal changes took effect. Officials responded by encouraging early submission and installing more drop boxes.
Even with increased drop box use this year, over 20,000 ballots were still rejected for late postmarks in the August primary. Similar problems were seen in California during its June primary, where about 93,500 voters had ballots rejected due to timing issues.
In rural Washington counties, the effect was especially strong. In Stevens County, the rate of late-postmarked ballots quadrupled after postal changes. Auditor Lori Larsen said that on August 7, her office received a large number of ballots with late postmarks during the state’s grace period.
She thought at first that wildfires might have disrupted mail delivery, but the ZIP codes showed otherwise. Larsen said it seemed like many voters believed they had submitted their ballots on time.
Her office is now adding more secure drop boxes to help reduce future issues. In another rural county, ballots are now routed through Spokane before returning to Yakima.
County Auditor Charles Ross said the changes make it harder for rural voters to have their votes counted fairly.
Oregon Democrats are pushing back against recent Postal Service actions that may affect how ballots are handled, according to a report from ijpr.org. Secretary of State Tobias Read and other leaders said they believe the law supports their right to manage elections. They also criticized Trump for attacking mail-in voting, calling it a tactic meant to make it harder to vote.
Read and other officials are urging voters to prepare early by researching their choices before ballots arrive. In May’s election, over 7,300 Oregon ballots were rejected for late postmarks, about 13% of all ballots that arrived after Election Day. Washington officials reported more than 20,000 ballots marked as late in the August primary.
Read is asking for nearly $500,000 in emergency funding to add more drop boxes across Oregon. He emphasized that people should be ready with their ballots and have them filled out quickly when they arrive.
IMAGE: Photo of Rep. Tobias Read speaking. Photo: LA for TJR / Wikimedia, taken 2012-03-22, CC BY-SA 3.0