LAS VEGAS — When it comes to the 2024 White House election, the U.S. Postal Service may not be able to deliver, election officials have warned.
According to 33 secretaries of state and state elections officials, the postal service faces “serious questions about the operations of its processing facilities, lost and delayed election mail, and front-line training deficiencies” and has not seen any improvements “despite repeated discussions” with USPS headquarters.
Election officials sounded the alarm in an email to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Thursday.
Nevada joins California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia in voting by mail only.
Election officials have warned that if a larger than normal number of ballots are marked “undeliverable,” it could result in eligible voters being disqualified, just as it could be if mailed ballots are mishandled.
“In some cases, ballots have been misdelivered, resulting in voter disenfranchisement,” wrote the group, led by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and New Mexico Elections Chief Mandy Vigil.
“We urge you to take immediate and concrete corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues in USPS's election mail service, which, if not addressed, risk limiting voter participation and confidence in the election process,” they wrote.
Issues with the postal service's handling of mail-in ballots came to light during the 2020 presidential election, when the COVID-19 pandemic slowed ballot processing and led to more voters relying on mail-in ballots.
Adrian Marshall, the Postal Service's head of election mail, denied warnings of problems in November.
“We are ready to deliver. We successfully delivered a historic amount of mail-in ballots in 2020, in 2022, and plan to do so again in November 2024,” she said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post, vowing to provide state election officials “detailed information” about her agency's plans to quickly deliver election mail.
Governor DeJoy promised over the summer to postpone some changes until after the election, including moving northern Nevada mail processing from Reno to a facility in Sacramento, California, to avoid backlogs in the processing of election-related mail.
The letter came the same day that the 290,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers announced its endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.
Pro-union politicians are ready to “address the unique challenges facing the Postal Service and its members,” Letter Carriers Union President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement.
He said voters can trust his members, including Trump supporters, to get the job done ahead of the 2024 elections.
“All Americans can rest assured that our nation's postal carriers can and will perform their jobs in this election with the same integrity, accountability and dedication to duty that they perform for the American people during election times and every day,” Renfroe promised.
“To suggest they would do anything less is an insult to America's postal workers, many of whom are noted for putting on a second uniform in service to this country.”
