Local election officials confident mail-in ballots will be delivered on time despite national concerns

Nationwide concerns over the United States Postal Service’s ability to deliver election mail this fall don’t seem to worry local election officials.

Abigail Gardner, spokeswoman for Allegheny County, said the county doesn’t have any concerns at the moment.

“Allegheny County Elections has a very good relationship with USPS leadership at their California Avenue building and are in constant communication with them once ballots are sent out,” Gardner said. “They perform routine sweeps of their facilities to ensure as best they can that all ballots make it to our offices timely.”

Gardner said the county advises voters to send their ballots back as soon as they can or use a satellite or return site to return it in person if they’re concerned about it arriving in a timely manner.

Greg McCloskey, director of the Westmoreland County Election Bureau, said any widespread problems with the U.S. mail system could impact the timely arrival of mail-in and absentee ballots.

“If these ballots are not received by 8 p.m. on Election Day, it would disrupt voting for those voters that sent those ballots that were not received in time,” he said.

On Wednesday, officials from the National Association of State Election Directors, National Association of Secretaries of State and 29 local election official associations sent a letter to U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy regarding concerns over election mail service.

“Over the course of the last year, election officials across the country have raised serious questions about processing facility operations, lost or delayed election mail and front-line training deficiencies impacting USPS’s ability to deliver election mail in a timely and accurate manner,” the letter said.

Specific concerns included inconsistent training for Postal Service staff, “exceptionally long” delivery times and an increase in mail being returned as undeliverable.

The letter from the two agencies said it was sent on behalf of state and local election officials in all 50 states. It was not, however, signed by any Pennsylvania officials. Representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of State didn’t return a request for comment Thursday.

“We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service,” the letter said. “Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”

In the 2020 election, Westmoreland County officials confirmed there were issues with mail-in ballots not being sent out as planned. Some ballots in that election, fewer than 1,000, were received by the county after the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day.

Gardner said ballots need to be in the possession of the election department — not just postmarked — by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

Voters are advised to return their ballots in a timely manner.

“Once you receive your ballot, please return it quickly to the election bureau so we receive it before the 8 p.m. Election Day deadline,” McCloskey said. “The closer you get to Election Day, please consider delivering the ballot to us in person as we will have extended daily office hours and weekend hours for the two weeks prior to Election Day.”

Late ballots are not uncommon, Gardner said.

“We see the overwhelming majority of late ballots arrive the week of Election Day and then a long tail of a few dozen ballots that trickle in over the following weeks and even months,” Gardner said. “From the April primary, for example, a handful were postmarked well before Election Day and were lost in the mail, but the majority were mailed right before or after (or well after) Election Day.”

‘We are ready to deliver’

Postal service spokesman Mark Lawrence said his agency will respond directly to the letter sent from the organizations to provide information on the Postal Service’s plans “to ensure that we will effectively perform our role as an important part of the electoral process for voters or election officials who choose to utilize us.”

“We are ready to deliver. We were successful in 2020 delivering a historic volume of mai-in ballots, also in 2022, and will do so again in November 2024,” said Adrienne Marshall, director of election mail and government services for the Postal Service.

Lawrence said the Postal Service is committed to the timely and secure delivery of election mail and has been in “close communication” with 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,” he said.

The Postal Service is in the midst of network modernization, Lawrence said, and has briefed election officials about those plans, and how that 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.”

Lawrence said, in previous elections, election mail “routinely outperforms our regular service performance due to our long-standing processes and procedures.”