PORTLAND, Maine — The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) sent the U.S. Postal Service's postmaster general Louis DeJoy a letter Wednesday expressing their growing concerns about the service it is providing.
Secretaries of state from all 50 states, the District of Colombia, and from all U.S. territories joined together, signing the letter.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has been advocating for change and better quality of service from USPS for much of the year.
"Americans depend on the U.S. Postal Service for timely delivery of the mail to every corner of the country," Bellows said. "What we're seeing is that election officials are sending out election mail to voters and it is being returned as undeliverable even when the address is correct."
Bellows said mail is also taking long periods of time to deliver, sometimes not reaching its destination until 10 or more days past the postmark date.
She, her colleagues, and local election officials across the country believe issues like this could prevent voters from having their absentee ballots counted this presidential election.
"Perhaps it's a lack of training or some of the steps that the postal service management has made to consolidate processing is resulting in potential errors," Bellows said.
Bellows further explained that she and election officials have great working relationships with local postal service workers. She said she believes the ongoing issues stem from leadership.
She added DeJoy has implemented several changes to the way mail is processed and consolidated services.
Bellows said people used to be able to request their absentee ballots Thursday the week before the election, put their completed ballot in the mail on Friday, and be confident that their ballot would arrive to its destination on the following Tuesday: Election Day.
Now, with management changes, Bellows said ballots are often not received on time.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to USPS, requesting an interview with DeJoy, but the agency's spokesperson Marti Johnson said USPS is not interviewing on the matter at this time.
Director of Election Mail and Government Services Adrienne Marshall wrote in a statement, "We are ready to deliver. We were successful in 2020 delivering a historic volume of mail in ballots; also, in 2022 and will do so again in November 2024."
Johnson issued a statement as well:
The Postal Service is committed to the timely and secure delivery of the nation’s Election Mail. We have been in close communication with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), as well as other election officials throughout the year. Each time they have brought any issues to our attention, we have promptly addressed those concerns, and we will continue to do so.
As we have discussed widely with election officials, the Postal Service is in the midst of network modernization. We have provided briefings to both NASS and NASED, along with individual state’s officials about our modernization plans, discussing the reasons why those plans will not impact Election Mail. We note in that regard that on average, we are currently delivering mail in 2.7 days, although we continue to recommend as a common-sense measure that voters should mail their completed ballot before Election Day, and at least one week prior to their state’s deadline. And as demonstrated consistently in previous elections, Election Mail routinely outperforms our regular service performance due to our long-standing processes and procedures.
The Postal Service and its 650,000 employees are deeply committed to the secure and timely delivery of the nation’s Election Mail. We delivered Election Mail, including ballots, successfully in 2020 as noted in our final report.
To view the full report, click here.
Johnson shared that USPS would be responding directly to the letter from NASS and NASED to provide them with previously shared detailed information that explains the agency's plans to ensure that they effectively perform their role as an important part of the electoral process for voters who choose to cast absentee ballots.
Despite Johnson's response, Bellows said she and others have not seen improvement from the agency.
"It's very concerning to continue to raise the same issues and have things getting worse and not better," Bellows said. "We are truly hoping that they will recognize that the stakes are high. Everybody wants to participate in 2024. Every voter should know that when they return their ballot, their ballot will be returned in a timely way and their vote will count."
Bellows said she, her colleagues, and election officials are hoping progress comes before Election Day.
As a reminder, by law, all absentee ballots in Maine must be in the hands of town and city clerk office officials by 8 p.m. on Election Day, or the ballots can't be counted.