State election officials accuse US postal service of not being prepared for November election

Multiple election officials nationwide on Wednesday accused United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of not being adequately prepared for the upcoming election. 

DeJoy previously expressed confidence in his agency's preparation for the November election, claiming the postal service was in "great shape" to accept millions of mail-in ballots, and get them to the proper locations in a timely manner.

The National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors challenged that assertion in a rare open letter, accusing the postmaster general of failing to address numerous shortcomings in the service that could result in a loss of trust in the election process.

“State and local election officials need a committed partner in USPS,” the letter reads. “We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service."

The letter claimed the officials have not seen adequate improvement regarding concerns about processing facility operations, whether front-line training deficiencies impacted the Postal Service's ability to "deliver election mail in a timely and accurate manner," and concerns over lost or delayed election mail.

“Despite repeated engagement with USPS Election and Political Mail headquarters staff and state/regional Managers of Customer Relations, we have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns,” the letter added.

DeJoy has not publicly responded to the letter so far, but claimed last month that the Postal Service has been undergoing rapid changes as it prepares for this year's election. However, some of those changes will be paused in November to ensure the process runs smoothly. 

The service said it is aiming for a nearly 100% return rate within three days of the election this November, after it returned 97.9% of ballots to election officials within three days in 2020, and 98.9% of ballots were returned in 2022.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.