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By CLAIRE RUSH
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A bunch of largely Democratic U.S. senators despatched a letter Thursday to the U.S. Postal Service, voicing concern that mail processing modifications might have an effect on postmark dates for mail-in ballots throughout an election yr that can decide management of Congress.
Up to date company coverage says postmarks won’t point out the primary day the Postal Service obtained the mail however reasonably the day it was dealt with in certainly one of its processing facilities. These facilities are more and more more likely to be additional away from sure communities due to latest USPS consolidations, which might additional delay postmarks, the 16 senators wrote.
“Postmark delays are particularly problematic in states that vote totally or largely by mail,” they wrote to Postmaster Normal David Steiner, noting that many states use postmark dates to find out whether or not a mail poll could be counted. “These modifications will solely improve the probability of voter disenfranchisement.”
The implications might be notably acute in rural areas the place mail has to journey farther to achieve regional processing facilities, they added.
“In concept, a rural voter might submit their poll in time in line with their state legislation, however because of the modifications you’re implementing, their legally-cast poll wouldn’t be counted because it sits in a neighborhood put up workplace,” they wrote. “As we enter a yr with many native and federal elections, the chance of disrupting this important democratic course of calls for your consideration and motion.”
The Postal Service has obtained the letter and can reply on to those that despatched it, spokesperson Martha Johnson mentioned.
The company addresses the difficulty on its web site.
“Whereas we’re not altering our postmarking practices, we now have made changes to our transportation operations that can end in some mailpieces not arriving at our originating processing amenities on the identical day that they’re mailed,” its web site says. “Because of this the date on the postmarks utilized at our processing amenities won’t essentially match the date on which the shopper’s mailpiece was collected by a letter service or dropped off at a retail location.”
Johnson mentioned the language within the ultimate rule “doesn’t change any current postal operations or postmarking practices.” She added that the company seemed ahead to “clarifying the senators’ misunderstanding.”
“Our public submitting was made to boost public understanding of precisely what a postmark represents, its relationship to the date of mailing and when a postmark is utilized within the course of,” she mentioned.
Individuals dropping off mail at a put up workplace can request {that a} postmark be utilized manually, making certain the postmark date matches the mailing date, the Postal Service’s web site says. Guide postmarks are freed from cost.
The company mentioned the “lack of alignment” between the mailing date and postmark date will change into extra frequent because it implements its initiative to overtake processing and transportation networks with an emphasis on regional hubs. The goal of the initiative is to chop prices for the company, which has grappled with losses within the billions of {dollars} in recent times.
Beneath the plan, the Postal Service removed twice-daily mail dispatches from native put up workplaces to regional processing facilities. Which means mail obtained after the one switch truck leaves sits in a single day till the following each day switch, the senators wrote.
Election officers in states that rely closely on voting by mail expressed concern with the change.
“Not with the ability to have religion that the Postal Service will mark ballots on the day they’re submitted and mail them in a well timed method undermines vote-by-mail voting, in flip undermining California and different elections,” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber mentioned in an announcement.
She mentioned her workplace will “amplify messaging to voters” who use mailed ballots that they have to return their ballots early in the event that they plan to make use of the put up workplace.
Election officers in Washington state, the place voting is finished nearly totally by mail, are recommending that those that return their poll inside per week of Election Day achieve this at a drop field or voting heart.
“Given the operational and logistical priorities not too long ago set by the USPS, there is no such thing as a assure that ballots returned by way of mail can be postmarked by the USPS the identical day they’re mailed,” the secretary of state’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.
The senators urged Steiner to revive “well timed postmarks” and totally get up an election mail activity pressure. The lawmakers who signed the letter represented California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland. All are Democrats however one, an impartial who sometimes aligns with the Democratic Celebration.
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