Postal Service is taking ‘extraordinary measures’ to deliver ballots on time. What are they?
The U.S. Postal Service is assuring voters that their completed ballots will be delivered to election officials on time, despite worries about reduced mail collection times at post offices across the country.
The massive overhaul of the Postal Service’s rules and operations have raised concerns locally, too, and many San Luis Obispo County residents are wondering if last-minute voters’ will get their ballots postmarked on Election Day and delivered to the county by the voting deadline.
The Postal Service, however, said it is up to the job.
With less than a week remaining until Election Day, the agency said it is taking “extraordinary measures” to deliver mail-in ballots on time, leaving no voter behind.
“As we anticipate an uptick of ballots in the mail over the coming days, Postal Service employees are working to ensure the ballots of every individual who chooses to vote by mail are delivered quickly and securely,” the agency said in a news release on Monday.
In the final stretch before Election Day, here is everything voters need to know about casting their ballot by mail.
What ‘extraordinary measures’ is the Postal Service taking?
The Postal Service said it is “deploying extraordinary measures in the final weeks of the election season to swiftly move ballot mail entered close to or on election day and/or the state’s return deadline.”
But what are those measures, exactly?
According to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in his testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Sept. 26., they include making extra collections and deliveries to the county election center, special pick-ups including on Sundays, a prioritization of election mail over other postage at processing facilities, and additional services at post offices such as drive-through ballot drops and dedicated lines for postmarking ballots.
A 10-page notice was sent to all Postal Service employees detailing how to implement these special election season operations.
DeJoy said that these measures are “by definition extraordinary.”
“These (measures) are designed to rescue ballots that are otherwise likely, or definitely, entered in our system too late to make certain deadlines established by election officials,” he said. “These measures are heroic efforts intended to beat the clock and are designed to be used only when the risk of deviating from our standard processes is necessary to compensate for the ballot being mailed so close to a state’s ballot receipt deadline.”
These efforts have already begun, and will continue beyond Nov. 5 into the final weeks of the election season.
In the first three weeks of October, the Postal Service reported 99.9% of ballots were delivered within one week of being sent, the release said. On average, ballots sent from voters to their election officials were delivered within one day.
“The Postal Service has the operational capacity to deliver the nation’s ballots in the final week of the election,” the agency said in the news release, referencing that in the 2020 election, ballots accounted for just 0.11% of the Postal Service’s total mail volume.
How are operational changes impacting local post offices during the election?
The sweeping overhaul in the Postal Service’s operations was made in an effort to recover $87 billion in losses over the past 14 years.
Included in the changes is the Local Transportation Optimization program, which aims to consolidate pick-up and drop-off activities at locations more than 50 miles from the local processing center.
SLO County’s mail processing center is located in Goleta near Santa Barbara, farther than 50 miles away from all post offices in the county. Nipomo is 75 miles from Goleta.
Cambria resident Tina Dickason said the changes in mail delivery times in her community is a great concern of hers as the election approaches.
Mail collections from the Cambria post office — 120 miles away from Goleta — have traditionally been at 12 and 4 p.m. daily.
Starting in July with the system overhaul, mail is now being collected at 6 a.m. six days a week, before the post office opens. This means the previous day’s mail is not collected to take to the distribution center in Goleta until the following day.
“I am concerned about last-minute voters, who may mail their ballot in a curbside mailbox, or inside the post office, believing that the collection times posted on the mailboxes will allow for their ballots to get postmarked and counted,” she wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Dickason said that there were never any notices on the post offices or USPS mailboxes alerting customers of any changes to the collection times.
Now, the Postal Service is saying that it will add extra collection times for its election season push, but it is unclear when those pick-up times will be.
Dickason said that when she asked the Cayucos post office when mail will be collected on and before Election Day, the office told her they could not disclose any details about the times of the extra deliveries.
“What is clear is that they’re being very, very sneaky,” she said.
The Tribune called the Cambria post office multiple times but did not receive a response.
Frustrated by the lack of transparency from the Postal Service, she called their new operational plan “disgusting,” and said that “It seems fraudulent.”
“How does a voter, placing a ballot in a mailbox on Nov. 5, have their ballot postmarked and counted, if it isn’t collected until Nov. 6?” Dickason asked.
In his testimony, DeJoy said that “it has been the long-standing policy of the Postal Service which remains in place today to try to ensure that every return ballot mailed by voters receives a postmark” — the key word concerning voters being “try.”
SLO County Clerk-Recorder and elections official Elaina Cano said that when in doubt, use a county ballot drop-off box.
“I highly encourage voters, if they want to return their vote-by-mail ballot on Election Day, they either go to one of our drop boxes or they go to a polling place, and they can go to anywhere in the whole entire county,” Cano said. “That way they know that we will get it and it is timely.”
Election mail sent through the Postal Service is delivered from post offices across the county to the San Luis Obispo office on Dalidio Drive. From there, a team of two elections officials from the Clerk-Recorder’s Office pick up ballots once daily at no set time and twice on Election Day, Cano said.
County election officials also collect ballots directly from official ballot collection boxes located across the county and from polling places in the county on Election Day.
However, Cano noted that not all ballot drop boxes are open until 8 p.m. on Election Day and instead are subject to the hours of the facility they are located in. The ballot drop box located at the County Government Building in San Luis Obispo will be open until 8 p.m. on Election Day, Cano said.
Voters can find ballot drop box location and times and polling locations on the Clerk-Recorder’s website.
Ballots that are dropped off at polling places or into collection boxes do not need to be postmarked by the Postal Service because they are not being mailed, Cano said.
“Everything we collect on Election Day is going to be timely and processed and counted,” Cano said.
The earlier the vote, the better, county elections official says
But according to Cano and the Postal Service, the best thing people voting by mail can do is to vote early.
“As in past elections, the Postal Service is ready to deliver your ballot on time,” the agency said in the release. “But don’t delay. If you choose to vote by mail, please mail early as every day counts.”
USPS recommends a “common-sense measure” for voters to mail their ballots at least one week before their election office requires them. In SLO County, ballots need to be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the Clerk-Recorder’s Office by Nov. 12 — one week later — to be counted.
This means it is OK for mail to be picked up the morning after the election and delivered to the county election’s office, as long as it is postmarked by or before 8 p.m on Nov. 5.
Cano echoed the postmaster general’s message.
“I highly, highly, highly encourage people to get their ballot in early and that way they get processed and included in the 8 o’clock results on Election Night,” Cano told The Tribune.
She said that any vote-by-mail ballots received after the Saturday before Election Day won’t be processed by the county election center until the following week.
