LAS VEGAS — The US Postal Service won’t be capable of ship with regards to the 2024 race for the White Home, election officers have warned.
The company faces “severe questions on processing facility operations, misplaced or delayed election mail, and front-line coaching deficiencies,” which have proven no enchancment “regardless of repeated engagement” with USPS headquarters, based on 33 secretaries of state and state election administrators.
The election officers sounded the alarm in a letter emailed Thursday to Postmaster Common Louis DeJoy.
Nevada, together with California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington state, and the District of Columbia, use solely mail-in ballots.
If a “greater than normal” variety of ballots are marked “undeliverable,” it may disqualify in any other case eligible voters, as may the mishandling of mailed ballots, the election officers cautioned.
“In some circumstances, this has resulted in misdelivery of ballots such that voters are disenfranchised,” the group, which was led by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and New Mexico state elections director Mandy Vigil, wrote.
“We implore you to take speedy and tangible corrective motion to deal with the continuing efficiency points with USPS election mail service. Failure to take action will threat limiting voter participation and belief within the election course of,” they wrote.
Issues with how the Postal Service handles mail-in ballots got here to the forefront through the 2020 presidential election, when the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated sluggish downs and elevated the variety of voters who turned to mailing it in.
Postal Service election mail chief Adrienne Marshall rejected the warnings of bother forward come November.
“We’re able to ship. We had been profitable in 2020 delivering a historic quantity of mail-in ballots; additionally in 2022 and can accomplish that once more in November 2024,” she mentioned in an announcement emailed to The Submit, vowing to present the state election officers “detailed info” in regards to the company’s plans to make election mail transfer promptly.
DeJoy promised over the summer season to delay sure modifications till after the election in a bid to keep away from slowing election-related mail, together with shift of northern Nevada mail processing from Reno to a facility in Sacramento, California.
The letter arrived the identical day the 290,000-member Nationwide Affiliation of Letter Carriers introduced its endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her operating mate, Tim Walz.
The professional-union pols are keen “to deal with the distinctive challenges going through the Postal Service and our members,” Letter Carriers union president Brian L. Renfroe mentioned in an announcement.
Voters can depend on his members to get the job achieved for the 2024 elections — together with Trump supporters, he mentioned.
“All People can relaxation assured that our nation’s letter carriers can — and can — perform their duties this election with the identical integrity, duty and devotion to mission they exhibit as they ship for the American folks throughout election season and each different day,” Renfroe promised.
“To recommend that they might do something much less is to demean America’s postal workers — a lot of whom, it’s value noting, are sporting their second uniform in service to this nation.”
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