The U.S. Postal Service has sent letters warning 46 states and the District of Columbia that it can not guarantee all ballots cast by mail will arrive in time to be counted in the November election, the Washington Post reported.
The cash-strapped agency’s cost-cutting moves have already delayed some mail by as much as a week. A recent decision to shut down 10 percent of the Postal Service’s sorting machines could spell even longer delays. Trump-appointed Postmaster Louis DeJoy implemented the cuts in a measure to save the Postal Service from insolvency.
The report sends a warning to the tens of millions of voters eligible to vote by mail: Even if voters meet every deadline and follow their state’s election procedures, their vote may not be counted.
The Washington Post obtained records of the ballot warnings, issued in late July by Thomas Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service.
Amid the sudden shift to mail-in voting triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, some states anticipate 10 times the typical volume of election mail. Six states and Washington received warnings that ballots could be delayed for a subset of voters. The other 40 states, including battleground states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, were warned their current deadlines for requesting and returning ballots were “incongruous” with mail service and voters who send ballots close to the deadline could be disqualified…
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