Postal Delays, Errors In Swing States Loom Over Election
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Election official Jim Fortner places a crate of sorted absentee ballots with others from the same ward at the Madison, Wis., City-County Building on Aug. 5, 2020. Delays and failure to deliver absentee ballots in Wisconsin and other key swing states have sparked concerns about how well the November presidential election will be managed during the pandemic.
Will Cioci/Wisconsin Watch/APM Reports
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Wauwatosa, Wis., resident Aliza Werner was among more than 400 voters in that Milwaukee suburb who did not receive requested absentee ballots for the state’s Aug. 11 partisan primary. After officials sent the ballots again after, Werner dropped her ballot off to make sure it was received. She worries postal mix-ups could jeopardize the results of the November election.
Courtesy of Aliza Werner
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Courtesy of Aliza Werner
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Election workers Jeff and Lori Lutzka process absentee ballots at Milwaukee’s «central count location on August 11, 2020.
Will Cioci/Wisconsin Watch/APM Reports
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Will Cioci/Wisconsin Watch/APM Reports
Election workers Jeff and Lori Lutzka process absentee ballots at Milwaukee’s «central count location on August 11, 2020.
Will Cioci/Wisconsin Watch/APM Reports
The postal service says it is meeting regularly with elections officials to discuss election mail and ballot design and will take steps to ensure better monitoring of election mail. In addition to the barcodes now added to many outgoing Wisconsin ballots, the state also plans to issue absentee ballot applications to every registered voter to help take the workload off local elections officials and encourage voters to request a ballot sooner.
«I’ve been assured by our district manager that they will be doing everything they can to make sure all the mail gets delivered timely, said Barbara Goeckner, an official with the village of Cambridge.
Could postal service changes slow the mail?
But Goeckner, who chairs a U.S. Elections Assistance Commission subcommittee on election-related postal service issues, says she’s also wary of the recent operational changes enacted by DeJoy that could lead to slower mail delivery.
«I have to say that that is a very big concern across the nation for postal mail, and election mail, she said.
In Lansing, Michigan, mail is processed 65 miles away in Grand Rapids, said Chris Swope, the city clerk. While the consolidation saves money, it can be a problem for voters who wait until the last minute to put their ballot in the mail. «It used to be in Lansing, if you mailed it today, the person in Lansing would get it tomorrow, and that’s generally not true anymore, Swope said.
DeJoy says the post office should not be blamed if state laws allow voters to request and return an absentee ballot too close to the election to meet delivery standards. He also pledged the postal service could meet the standards despite the expected «unprecedented increase in election mail.
But officials with the unions representing 200,000 postal employees say DeJoy’s efforts to curtail overtime will slow down the delivery of by-mail ballots.
«It’s not going to undermine the integrity of the ballot, the safety of the ballot or the privacy of the ballot, said Mark Dimonstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. «But it’s certainly going to make it more challenging for the states who run elections.
This story was reported in collaboration with APM Reports, the investigative and documentary journalism team at American Public Media. The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (wisconsinwatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
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