Late mail ballots rose sharply in rural areas of five states during primaries, report says
The New Republic, citing ProPublica, links the late ballots to Postal Service changes. The USPS says it has taken steps to avoid delays in November.
In this year's primaries in Oregon, North Carolina, Washington, California and Ohio, more mail-in ballots in rural areas arrived too late to be counted, according to The New Republic, citing reporting by ProPublica. The New Republic blamed cuts at the U.S. Postal Service.
In Stevens County, Washington, election workers checked the mail for late ballots three days after the primary. They found more than 500 envelopes when they had expected only a few dozen, the outlet reported. The same thing happened in all 11 rural counties of eastern Washington. More than 2,000 ballots came in late there, compared with 600 in the 2022 midterm elections.
According to The New Republic, ProPublica traced the problem to several changes at the postal service. Over the past three years, the USPS moved first-class mail processing to regional hubs instead of smaller plants closer to local post offices. Then, just after the presidential election two years ago, it cut in half its pickups from post offices at least 50 miles from those hubs.
The outlet reported that this added at least one day to delivery times. It also pushed back postmarks, which are not applied until mail reaches a regional processing center. Postmarks are used to legally verify whether a ballot can be counted. The New Republic reported that in rural counties in the five states, late ballots get a grace period if they are postmarked by Election Day. Even so, ProPublica found that rejections rose compared with 2022.
The New Republic said Trump administration officials pushed the postal changes and that the changes likely hurt the Republican Party without meaning to. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, told ProPublica, "I don't think they realized how much it was going to affect their voter base." He noted that his state has "a lot of rural Republican voters."
The stakes are high in close races. The New Republic said that a few thousand or even a few hundred ballots could swing many contests in rural areas.
USPS officials say delays are much less likely in the November 3 general election because of "extraordinary measures," the outlet reported. Earlier this fall, the postal service sent a memo to every post office in the country. It told them to separate ballots from other mail for the 10 days before Election Day and to deliver ballots on the day they arrive.
“"We work to identify and address issues quickly, so ballots can continue to move swiftly from election offices to voters and from voters back to election offices."”Amber McReynolds, chair of the Postal Service board of governors, at a press conference last week
It is not yet known whether these measures will prevent late ballots in November. The New Republic's report gave late-ballot counts only for eastern Washington and did not give figures for the other four states.
