The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service discovered in a recent audit that some USPS services are not adhering to correct Election Mail procedures. The future election’s forthcoming USPS service issues threaten the security of mail-casted votes.
The independent USPS Office of the Inspector General ( OIG ) conducts “audits, evaluations, research, and investigations” to fulfill its “mission of ensuring efficiency, accountability, and integrity in the U. S. Postal Service”. In November 2023, the OIG commenced a self-initiated assessment of” Election Mail Readiness for the 2024 General Election“. According to the report, the audit was conducted at” 15 judgmentally selected email processing features and 35 supply modules located in 13 states and Puerto Rico during primary elections in February and March 2024″ in order to assess the Postal Service’s preparation for the fast processing and distribution of Election and Political Mail for the 2024 general election.
With just three months until the 2024 public vote, the audit’s results identified three main areas of concern.
Lack of Compliance With Election Mail and Political Mail Policies ,  ,
The second finding provided specifics about how postal service employees disregarded certain electoral and political email policies and procedures. The USPS has created an” Election Mail and Political Mail Guidebook,” which “dispenses with employees many of the essential tools that explain the long-standing, special-handling techniques required to facilitate the proper handling and delivery of Election Mail and Political Mail,” according to the document. According to the report, the guidebook specifies how postal employees must” correctly record the Election and Political Mail arrivals in the log” and how to verify that their facility is free of Election and Political Mail every morning.
However, the report claims that “over half of the delivery units and processing facilities” were completing the election and political mail logs without the required standards. Additionally, according to the audit, “personnel at processing facilities did not adhere to the daily audit checklists as required by policy,” with” some personnel… inaccurately marking items as completed.”
These findings point to a lack of training and knowledge of election and political mail policies and procedures, which could have a negative impact on USPS services.
” Without full compliance, implementation, and a clear understanding of the Election and Political Mail policies and procedures”, the report states,” there is a risk of improper handling, untimely processing, and late delivery of Election and Political Mail”.
Operational Risks to the timely processing and delivery of election mail
A second audit report uncovered how “operational risks” could “delay the processing and delivery of Election Mail” without warning. Specifically, the audit revealed “inconsistent election day coordination, a lack of processes to segregate Election Mail out of Postal Automated Redirection System ( PARS ) Mail, and confusion around postmarking” . ,
According to the report, in eight of the 14 facilities observed on primary Election Day, “between one and 82 ballots” did not make it to the election office “on time to be counted”. The report cited a number of” contributing elements” for this, including” [f ] our mail processing facilities ] that did not have any processes for separating out ballots during primary election day for expedited processing” and” [d ] elivery units ] that did not coordinate with two mail processing facilities about ballots going to board of election offices on primary election day.”
What’s more, some facilities also appeared to lack proper understanding regarding postmarking policies. The investigation revealed that “personnel at seven of fifteen ( 47 % ) mail processing facilities did not know postmarking policy, and personnel at eight of 35 ( 23 % ) delivery units did not know postmarking policy,” and that” some of these offices reported that they would execute postmarking in ways that were outside of policy.”
These problems might have already contributed to election turbulence. As previously reported in The Federalist, ballots mailed in Southern Utah were sent to a processing center in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, many of the ballots were not processed in time to meet the postmark deadline, which meant that Utah’s June primary could not be cast. Election officials believe the delay was caused by the distance between where the ballots were allegedly processed in Las Vegas and where they were sent by voters. The election was certified without resolving the problem, but, after a lawsuit was filed, the matter is now being resolved by the courts.
Although the specific Utah incident is not covered in the report, the concerns raised by the audit’s second finding again cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election and political mail process and policy.
New USPS Operations Could Threaten Election Security ,
The most significant implications for the USPS’s ability to process and deliver Election and Political Mail for the 2024 general election are undoubtedly the most important findings of the third audit findings.  ,
This particular audit finding supported my earlier reporting in The Federalist, in which I highlighted several areas of concern with the USPS” Delivering for America” restructuring program, including the consolidation of mail handling and distribution into regional processing centers and the USPS Local Transportation Optimization ( LTO ) initiative. It also confirmed my earlier findings. Due to the consolidation of facilities, mail in some areas must be delivered to a neighboring state for processing and then returned for delivery. The ballots were transported to a processing facility in another state before being returned to Utah, too late, in the case of the Utah primary ballot disaster. By producing more efficiently processable loads, the LTO initiative aims to “reduce the overall number of transportation trips between sorting facilities and delivery units.” However, a separate USPS audit conducted at a pilot location for the initiative revealed that this has apparently resulted in keeping some mail at delivery points after it has been” collected” according to a separate USPS audit.  ,
The most recent July audit identified delays at a number of facilities as a result of poor LTO management. Although the report states that, “at the]Sorting and Delivery Centers ] we visited, we did not find any delayed ballots”, it goes on to say that “all]these ] sites were not completing all clear certifications according to policy and personnel at two of four did not know postmarking policy”, as discussed in the report’s first finding. This once more demonstrates a lack of training and understanding of the USPS Election Mail process.  ,
The USPS has effectively grown to be the largest precinct in our elections, but as the audit reveals, the organization is ineffectively prepared to handle and deliver Election and Political Mail for the 2024 general election. Although the Office of the Inspector General provided a number of “recommendations” in the report to address issues identified by the investigation, they were only released three months before the election. According to the report, one of these “recommendations” is scheduled to be implemented in late October and another is n’t projected to launch until mid-November.
What might happen in the USPS’s primary election could be a general election’s problems. The audit report on” Electoral Mail Readiness for the 2024 General Election” should be read carefully by state election officials, and encourage voters to use other methods of mail voting.  ,
Elections should be unbiased, not convenient, especially when using mail to cast ballots could result in voter disenfranchisement and numerous lawsuits.  ,
The Election Integrity Network’s Citizens Election Research Center is led by Ned Jones. He has been researching election processes, including the USPS Election Mail System since the 2020 Election.
