USPS data shows thousands of mailed ballots missed Election Day deadlines

[Ponietz]

Source: Washington Post

Nearly 7 percent of ballots in U.S. Postal Service sorting facilities on Tuesday were not processed on time for submission to election officials, according to data the agency filed Wednesday in federal court, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of ballots caught in the mail system during an especially tight presidential race.

The Postal Service reported the timely processing — which includes most mail-handling steps outside of pickup and delivery — of 93.3 percent of ballots on Election Day, its best processing score in several days, but still well below the 97-percent target that postal and voting experts say the agency should hit.

The Postal Service processed 115,630 ballots on Tuesday, a volume much lower than in recent days after weeks of warnings about chronic mail delays. Of that number, close to 8,000 ballots were not processed on time, a small proportion but one that could factor heavily in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, which do not accept ballots after Election Day and could be decided by a few thousand votes.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District of Columbia had ordered the Postal Service to sweep 12 postal processing facilities that cover 15 states for ballots. But the agency rebuffed that order and said it would stick to its own inspection schedule, which voting rights advocates worried was too late in the day for found ballots to make it to vote counters.





Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/03/election-ballot-delays-usps/

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Is there one honorable US attorney left?

[Hoyt]

1. Investigate the hell out of it. But, I also have to question anyone who mailed in their ballot after

say last Wednesday.

Would also like to know why some postal workers -- and local postmasters -- didn't step up and get these ballots delivered. DeJoy is a creep, but he wasn't standing there forcing ballots into post office crevices and dumpsters.

[liberalguilt57]

14. In PA, we were told if you got your ballot postmarked by Nov. 3, it WOULD be counted

The PA Supreme Court said so.
So, people were operating under the assumption -- announced by the state -- that if you got your ballot postmarked by yesterday, it WOULD be counted under state election law.
Of course, Trump is trying to challenge that now, and PA Republicans are trying to enable him, but...
If you're told the LAW is on your side, why wouldn't you feel you could wait to mail it a couple of days before election day?
Now, I would NEVER trust my ballot in the mail more than a week out, with DeJoy's shenanigans going on ... I voted in person.
But those ballots were supposed to be postmarked in a timely manner AND counted, with the force of PA state election law behind it!

[Hoyt]

16. To get ballots postmarked by Nov 3, one should have had it in mail at least a week

ago. Not rocket science.

[aggiesal]

21. Or they can have a drive by ballot box at the USPS and ...

close the ballot box at the time the Polls close.

Much like they do for the Income Tax returns on 4/15.

For the tax returns, some post offices stay open till midnight on 4/15
and if you're in line by midnight, you'll get your Tax form postmarked 4/15.

[cab67]

18. There's a difference between dropping something off and having it postmarked.

There's a lag between the time a letter arrives at a post office and the time it gets postmarked. The duration of that lag depends on a bunch of variables, in particular the location of the post office, how it got there (picked up by letter carrier, dropped off directly at post office, etc.), and the time of year.

A lot of people think a letter will be postmarked the day it's dropped off.

[Ms. Toad]

23. That's how it works.

Each mailbox has pick-up hours. if you're in before the last pick-up hour or the day, it is supposed to be postmarked that day.

[cab67]

24. That may be how it's supposed to work

but it's not how it always necessarily works. When mail volume is high, mail picked up at a mailbox might be delivered to the post office right away, but not postmarked until the following day.

[sakabatou]

2. DeJoy's fault.

[Farmgirl1961]

3. So now what happens? Will they be able to be counted? n/t

[C_U_L8R]

4. DeJoy says that's a feature not a bug

The corruption worked exactly as planned

[In_The_Wind]

5. We dropped our ballots off at the town hall drop box.

I know of 2 votes for Biden that count.

[Karma13612]

6. This is just criminal.

I know the rule is that the ballots have to make it to the poll stations for counting by the state’s deadline. But, when you know that the USPS NoJoy was at fault, they should allow these ballots to get to their final destination and be counted.

This is pure criminal voter suppression.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

7. WHY DONT SOME OF THESE LAWS specify postmark dates ??? Can you imagine

if IRS said get your tax form in by April 15, not postmarked by April 15 ? What a mess that would be. No, they say POSTMARK because that is verifiable proof that the taxpayer was compliant with the law. Some states do specify postmark date that is same as election date, but a state could require an earllier postmark date if they wanted to get all (or most) in by a certain date.

[liberalguilt57]

15. PA did specifiy Tuesday as the postmark date.

But, if you put your ballot in the mailbox a couple of days before that, you'd be assuming the post office would be postmarking in a timely manner!
But then you've got Trump, DeJoy and their shenanigans...

[cstanleytech]

8. Regardless they should be counted if they were in the hands of the post office before the deadline.

[Ponietz]

9. Yes, with the demonstrable bad faith of USPS, the doctrine of constructive delivery should apply

[cstanleytech]

10. Correction its the demonstrable bad faith of Dejoy.

[Ponietz]

11. I understand you point, several family members are USPS

But he did have accomplices.

[orleans]

12. i can't read wapo but on googling i found this on vox

What’s really going on with the mail-in ballots the US Postal Service can’t trace
The case of the supposed 300,000 missing mail-in ballots isn’t what it seems.

"Several news outlets reported on Election Day that the United States Postal Service did not have records of delivery scans for 300,000 mail-in ballots across a dozen states, stoking fears that changes to the Postal Service implemented earlier this year by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a top Trump donor, had potentially disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters.

"But the president of the largest postal worker union corroborated in an interview with Recode on Wednesday morning what the Postal Service has repeatedly said about the data in court filings in recent days: There are numerous reasons why ballots in the days leading up to the election would not receive a delivery scan and that it’s highly unlikely that the number of undelivered ballots totaled anywhere near 300,000.

“Just because something didn’t have [a delivery scan] does not translate at all into ‘it was not delivered,’” Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told Recode on Wednesday. (The APWU has previously been critical of operational changes DeJoy implemented earlier this year — and then put on pause — that its leaders say led to delivery delays.) “What we had in place … is the ballots were given such priority treatment, even beyond first-class treatment, that ballots were being purposely pulled out” of normal mail-processing procedures and given expedited delivery in the days leading up to Election Day."
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/11/4/21548389/usps-300000-missing-mail-in-ballots-delivery-delays-swing-states-judge-order

[jayfish]

13. With the New Powers Trump Gave Biden to Lord Over the DOJ...

this should be easily remedied.

[kimbutgar]

17. That's not the voters fault but the USPS not processing those ballots.

That said we were warned not to mail your ballot because we knew inspector was doing the work for MF45.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

19. Heads should roll!

[aggiesal]

20. What a bunch of Bull $h1t ...

Why can't ballots be treated like our tax returns, if we get our tax returns in the hands of the USPS by midnight on 4/16, they get postmarked 4/15.

If a ballot arrives at the USPS by 8:00pm PST here in California, then it should get postmarked 11/3 and counted.

How hard is that?

[gldstwmn]

22. In a reversal Trump is going

to ask they be counted once he gets really desperate in the next day or so