Broward strikes deal with USPS to speed up process for record number of mail ballots
Planning for a record number of mail ballots amid concerns about whether the U.S. Postal Service can handle the load, Broward Elections Supervisor Peter Antonacci has come up with a way to streamline the process of getting Nov. 3 ballots to the elections office.
Under an agreement his office struck with the USPS, mail ballots that once had to pass through a massive distribution center in Opa-locka, in northwest Miami-Dade County, will now be picked up directly from local post offices by Broward elections workers starting the Saturday before Election Day.
And even before then, the deal with the USPS allows Broward elections workers to pick up mail ballots at a post office in Oakland Park, where ballots are being consolidated. On Tuesday, elections workers made their first pickup from the Oakland Park location, collecting about 14,000 ballots, according to Broward elections spokesman Steve Vancore.
Eliminating the stop at the Opa-locka facility means elections workers will have more time to notify voters if there is a problem — such as forgetting to sign the back of the ballot envelope — and fix the issue so the vote can be counted.
It also means more ballots may get to elections officials on time. In the August primary, more than 2,500 mail ballots in Broward County were rejected because they were received past the 7 p.m. Election Day deadline. In that election, Broward election workers went to the Opa-locka facility once the day before the election and twice on Election Day to retrieve mail ballots.
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