"In a Wednesday letter sent to the U.S. Postal Service’s postmaster, Louis DeJoy, the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State said they have “ongoing concerns” about USPS’s ability to perform ahead of the Nov. 5 contest.Over the past year, they warned, 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, a problem that could automatically send voters to inactive status through no fault of their own, potentially creating chaos when those voters show up to cast a ballot.In that time period, “election officials across the country have raised 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,” the letter stated.Further, officials have told the two associations that mail sent to voters is being deemed “undeliverable” at higher than normal rates, sometimes in instances where a “voter is known not to have moved.”“This has affected a range of election mail, including informational mailers about critical election information and voter address confirmation cards, as well as ballots,” the letter said.Despite the alleged issues, the groups said that repeated attempts to contact the USPS to resolve them did not result in changes, adding that the mail delivery problems result from “a pervasive lack of understanding and enforcement of USPS policies among its employees.”“We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service,” they said. “Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”
