In the 2020 presidential election, the Left staunchly promoted voting by mail and scoffed at critics of the option. In 2024, however, Democrat and Republican election officials, as well as an inspector general, are raising concerns about whether the U.S. Postal Service is prepared for mail-in ballots.
Last week, election officials from both major parties expressed concern about mail-in ballots, the same week the National Letter Carriers Association—which represents 290,000 active and retired mail carriers—endorsed Vice Preident Kamala Harris for president. In July, the American Postal Workers Union, representing 200,000 Postal Service employees, endorsed Harris.
Earlier this year, the Postal Service Office of Inspector General expressed concern about the “risk of delays in the processing and delivery” of election-related mail as well as “operational changes that pose a risk of individual ballots not being counted.”
However, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy insists that he is “confident in our Election and Government Mail Services group, and in the robust plans we have in place.”
During the pandemic election year of 2020, 43% of voters participated by mail, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission—almost twice as many who voted by mail in each previous presidential election, 2012 and 2016, when about one-quarter sealed their ballots in envelopes.
Voting by mail isn’t likely to be as high for the Nov. 5 presidential election, said Ken Cuccinelli, national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative. But the volume of mailed ballots is expected to be substantially high, he said.
Ballots that leave a voter’s state pose a significant problem for election mail, Cuccinelli said, adding that he doesn’t view the Postal Service as ready.
Delays are caused by changes in shipping, said Cuccinelli, former attorney general of Virginia and acting deputy secretary of homeland security during the Trump administration.........