USPS Cuts Have Caused a Surge in Rejected Mail Ballots in Rural Counties
Ballot Rejections Have Soared in Rural Counties as USPS Reduces Mail Service
ProPublica found that the Postal Service's cost-cutting—consolidating processing and halving pickups in rural areas—has doubled or tripled late-ballot rejection rates in affected counties compared to 2022. In eastern Washington, nearly 2,000 ballots arrived too late to count, versus about 600 four years ago. The delays hit Trump-voting areas hardest, and experts warn that special election procedures may not prevent further rejections.
It isn’t a question of ‘if,’ but a question of ‘how many.’
- exabrial
There'd be enough to do that if the USPS wasn't busy burning thousands of tons of Diesel fuel to haul Verizon and Citi card advertisements to everyone else.
- hedora
It's almost like the republicans would be better off if they paid attention to their constitutional duties instead of just burning things down.
This will clearly hurt them in statewide elections, but I wonder how it plays out in local rural elections. I can imagine the rejected ballots leaning more blue than average in heavily red areas.
I can also imagine the opposite: Older folks have less mobility on average, and are probably more likely to mail the ballots in. The Propublica article doesn't say anything about this, but I imagine some election officials track it.
Their ID requirements in Ohio blew back a similar way a few years ago. They made it extremely hard to vote without a driver's license, thinking it'd hit college kids, but it mostly hit retirees that no longer drive.
- ck2
this is an anchor link to their zip-code check near middle of page:
* https://www.propublica.org/article/mail-ballot-delays-postal...
- kotaKat
Yep. Welcome to "regional transportation optimization". Every single day is painful being in an RTO territory for the post office.
https://www.savethepostoffice.com/rto-n2024-1/
It's so frustrating. If I want to mail something out, it sits for over a day in the local post office. Even Priority Mail Express can no longer get something out locally overnight. If I need overnight service, I have to drive a significant distance to get to a UPS station to get something into the network.
If something mis-sorts to the wrong post office, it sits for over a day at that remote post office before it can re-enter the stream.
I have had more and more late and missorted packages that compound the late deliveries and all I want to do is cry that I can't get the mail anymore in a reasonable fashion.
- gamblor956
10 years ago, mail service used to be great. Than Trump brought in the idiot from FedEx who "upgraded" the mail service. Even though the volume of mail has dropped 50%, the USPS now struggles to properly process the remaining mail on a timely basis.
Local deliveries used to be overnight; now they take up to a week. Transnational deliveries can take months.
I hope the primary effect of this will be that millions of MAGA votes go uncounted this year and in 2028, because they're the ones that voted for this in the first place.