US Postal Service warns 46 states about potential large-scale disenfranchisement

By Thomas Catenacci

The United States Postal Service sent letters to 46 states and Washington D.C. warning that ballots may be delivered after ballot counting deadlines in November, according to a report from The Washington Post Friday.

A record 76% of Americans will be able to vote by mail, The New York Times reported, after many states changed their voting policies due to the coronavirus pandemic. The postal service’s warning suggests that tens of millions of Americans could face disenfranchisement, the Post reported.

“Certain deadlines concerning mail-in ballots, particularly with respect to voters who register to vote or update their registration information shortly before Election Day, may be incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards,” said USPS General Counsel and Executive Vice President Thomas J. Marshall in a July 31 letter to Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman.

The letter continued: “This mismatch creates a risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be returned by mail in time to be counted under your laws as we understand them.”

The Post obtained dozens of additional letters after a records request, the outlet reported. Seven letters warned that certain voters were at risk of disenfranchisement, while 40 gave stern warnings that current deadlines were “incongruous” with the postal service’s standards, The Post reported.

One such letter was the one Marshall sent to Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar on July 29, according to NBC News.

Pennsylvania law requires that all absentee ballot applications – whether by mail, in person or online – are returned to the state seven days prior to the election, according to Vote.org. Completed ballots received after 8 p.m. on election day will not be counted.

States like Alabama, Illinois, New Mexico and Wisconsin require ballot applications to be received five days before the election, according to Vote.org. Massachusetts and Connecticut require applications to be received one day before the election, leaving very little time for the voting process to take place.

President Donald Trump has strongly opposed mail-in voting and has said that the election will be more susceptible to fraud. He even floated the idea of delaying the election, but later backtracked.

“The 2020 Election will be totally rigged if Mail-In Voting is allowed to take place, & everyone knows it. So much time is taken talking about foreign influence, but the same people won’t even discuss Mail-In election corruption,” Trump tweeted on July 26.

The coronavirus pandemic has sparked an ongoing debate over the security and effectiveness of a mostly mail-in election. State primary elections relied on mail-in systems leading to confusion, lawsuits and a postal service inspector general investigation.

The World Health Organization named the coronavirus a pandemic in March and Trump declared a national emergency days later as coronavirus spreadrapidly around the world.

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6 thoughts on “US Postal Service warns 46 states about potential large-scale disenfranchisement

  1. ok, I could be wrong but elections are the responsibility of the states and local governments, and should not rely on the US postal service – ever…

    I voted in the primary in person, else how would I know I got all the critical info on each candidate?

  2. I can see that there would be a plan in place that would slow down the delivery of ballots from the red states and would arrive after the deadline, however, ballots from the blue states would be expedited. That is why Nance and Chuck are pushing for mail in ballots. The republicans know that this is the dems plan and this plan of theirs is what’s holding back the covid-19 aid to American tax payers.

  3. We can’t say we haven’t been given ample warning. The whole mail in voting system is loaded with far too many areas where fraudulent ballots can and will be cast. Could be that is why the Dems are all for it. Just a thought.

  4. We have been told by the Vermont Sec of State that the Aug ll, primary was a great success, I wonder did your vote count? Did you follow the instructions or was your ballet deemed spoiled and not counted? How many spoiled ballets was there in Vt? How many ballets arrived after the deadline and thus were not counted? If there was only one uncounted vote and it was mine, I’d be very upset. But I’m sure there was more than one uncounted ballet and those ballets might have been yours. Do you care? If we don’t get a report on the number of spoiled and too late to be counted ballets, how can we be sure the primary was a success.

    • I just read in Seven Days that there were 6000 botched ballets that were not counted. The final official count will be announced later.

    • Dorothy, ya know, at the end of the day, the Left would love to just do away with these pesky elections anyway.
      Rush has been saying this for years and it’s looking more and more like he’s right.
      What they want to do, besides cheat to win, is destroy our confidence in the election process so that people like us just quit the game and they know full well that their people won’t.

      So it’s important to understand what is *really* going on under the surface.
      The fake covid19 scamdemic has been dragged out to justify the need for these mail in ballots because they had this plan in the can and need it to happen.. they needed people to be scared to support this and do it.

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