A New Conflict Over Mail Voting: The Price of the Postage

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A New Conflict Over Mail Voting: The Price of the Postage

“In lots of instances, sure deadlines regarding mail-in ballots could also be incompatible with the Postal Service’s supply requirements, particula


“In lots of instances, sure deadlines regarding mail-in ballots could also be incompatible with the Postal Service’s supply requirements, particularly if election officers use advertising and marketing mail to ship clean ballots to voters,” Ms. Johnson mentioned. “Utilizing advertising and marketing mail will end in slower supply instances and can improve the chance that voters is not going to obtain their ballots in time to return them by mail.”

Democrats and their allies have grown deeply distrustful of Mr. DeJoy’s intentions throughout his brief tenure main the put up workplace, the place he has tried to slash bills in ways in which have led to slowdowns and questions concerning the Postal Service’s capacity to deal with a a lot better quantity of mail ballots in a well timed method this yr.

Vanita Gupta, president of the Management Convention on Civil and Human Rights, mentioned Mr. Schumer was “completely proper in elevating alarm.”

“This yr, the place voting by mail goes to be essential, it’s alarming to make these cuts and recommend to state and native governments that they pay for expedited service when our democracy is counting on this,” Ms. Gupta mentioned. “It’s onerous to not see this as a political transfer by the Trump administration.”

Shifting to first-class mail may influence the budgets of some native governments, relying on what mailing system they at the moment use, elections consultants mentioned Tuesday.

Whether or not states or voters pay to return their mail-in ballots to election officers, these ballots are returned through first-class mail. Many states already use the first-class service to ship ballots to voters, however some, significantly Western states, moved to straightforward mail for the outbound journey to residents as their vote-by-mail populations burgeoned.

For years, the Postal Service has pushed for states to make use of the first-class charge, however amid the pandemic, these calls have turn into louder, in response to Tammy Patrick, senior adviser on the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan grant-making basis targeted on elections and governance.



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