Janice R. Andrews
As the 2024 presidential election gets closer, there are already problems with mail-in voting that could affect millions of people. People in charge of elections across the US have warned of problems with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which they think could mean that a lot of votes won’t be counted in November.
When the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State wrote a letter to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, they asked him to take quick action to fix problems with the USPS’s election mail services that were still going on. The letter talked about problems with mail service that came up during the primary elections earlier this year, such as ballots that were mailed on time but arrived after the deadline. Also, ballots that were properly labeled were sent back to voters as undeliverable for some reason.
“We beg you to take immediate and concrete steps to fix the ongoing performance problems with the USPS election mail service,” the officials said. The letter said that if nothing was done, it could make it very hard for people to vote and hurt trust in the voting process.
Mail-in voting became very popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and is likely to stay popular in 2024, even though some states are getting ready to start early voting. Election officials are still worried, even though DeJoy said the Postal Service is ready to handle a large number of mail-in votes. They made it clear that problems with mail service have not gotten better despite many attempts to get USPS leaders to help.
“Over the course of the last year, election officials across the country have raised serious questions about processing facility operations, lost or delayed election mail, and front-line training deficiencies,” it said. Some states, like Alabama, have already started to accept mail-in votes. In North Carolina, mail-in voting was delayed because Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name had to be taken off the ballot because of a court order.
Mail-in voting has been popular with Democrats for a long time. However, past President Donald Trump used to be against it but is now encouraging his followers to use it. With the 2024 election coming up quickly, it remains to be seen if the USPS can fix the problems in time to make sure that mail-in voting works smoothly and reliably.
Millions of voters depend on the Postal Service to send their ballots safely and on time, so the next election could be a big test of confidence.
