State election directors and politicians from across the country, including those from Nevada, expressed serious concerns to a top U.S. Postal Service official on Tuesday, July 23, about the system’s ability to handle the anticipated surge of mail-in ballots for the November election.
Steven Carter, manager of election and government programs for the USPS, tried to reassure the directors at a meeting in Minneapolis that the system’s Office of Inspector General will publish an election mail report next week containing “encouraging” performance numbers for this year.
“The data that we’re seeing shows improvements in the right direction,” Carter told the Conference of the National Association of State Election Directors. “I think the OIG report is especially complimentary of how we’re handling the election now.”
Earlier this year, the USPS announced plans to cease processing and delivering operations in Reno, moving them to Sacramento, California. The change, affecting mail from several Nevada counties, including Storey and Lyon, is projected to save between $3.1 million and $4.2 million annually.
Governor Joe Lombardo, Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, and Representative Mark Amodei have confronted Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about the move, highlighting concerns over job losses and potential weather-related delays in ballot processing.
DeJoy has defended the change, claiming his “Delivering for America” plan will enhance efficiency and make the postal service operate more like a private business. However, he has not provided evidence to support his claims that service in Nevada will improve at a lower cost.
State election directors remain worried that many ballots won’t be delivered in time to be counted, citing past issues and disruptions from postal facility consolidations. Monica Evans, executive director of the District of Columbia Board of Elections, shared her experience of not receiving her mail ballot for the June primary, forcing her to vote in person.
“We had, at last count, over 80 ballots that were timely mailed as early as May for our June 4 primary election,” Evans said. “We followed up and we just kept getting, ‘We don’t know what happened. We don’t know what happened.’”
Mail-in voting has become a crucial strategy for both parties in maximizing voter turnout for the 2024 election. Now, even Republicans see it as essential for an election likely to be decided by slim margins in swing states.
Bryan Caskey, elections director for Kansas, emphasized the potential impact of delivery delays, even in a jurisdiction with a 95% on-time rate. “That still means that in the state that sends out 100,000 ballots, that’s 5,000 angry voters mad about the mail service,” Caskey said.
Mandy Vigil, president of the National Association of State Election Directors and elections director for New Mexico, appreciated the engagement from USPS but remains concerned about the lack of timely changes.
“We need them to pay attention,” Vigil said. “We’ve been voicing our concerns since last November. But we just aren’t seeing the changes as we’re working through our primary elections.”
Nineteen senators recently wrote to DeJoy about the USPS’s plans for the 2024 election cycle, citing issues from past consolidations. Despite pausing these consolidations until January 2025, lawmakers demand assurances that their resumption won’t lead to further delays in mail delivery.
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