Georgia leaders worry mail delays could cause many absentee ballots to arrive too late to count

Caption

A Bucks County resident drops off a mail-in ballot in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 24, 2022.

Credit: REUTERS/Hannah Beier

This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.

In a rare bipartisan consensus about Georgia’s election process, both Republican and Democratic leaders agree that persistent mail delivery delays in the state could cost voters who use absentee ballots their chance to be counted on Election Day this November.

The stakes are high as Georgia is again considered a swing state that will likely help decide who will be the next U.S. president.

Georgia’s county election officers joined several dozen of their counterparts from across the nation this month who are raising serious concerns about the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to properly deliver absentee ballots on time for the Nov. 5 general election.

The National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that listed a range of complaints about postal service processing facilities, inadequate staff training as well as potentially lost and delayed election mail that could put eligible voters at risk of having their registration canceled or absentee ballots not delivered to local elections offices in time to have the votes counted.

The national election officials urged the postal service to move up the date of implementation of “extraordinary” procedures to at least a month prior to the Nov. 5 election headlined by the presidential showdown between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

W. Travis Doss, Jr., president of Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, was among the state and local election officials who signed the letter warning that if important fixes are not made to shore up months of persistent election mail delivery issues, it could hurt voter turnout and trust in the election process.

The persistent mail delivery problems are hindering the ability for voters to receive critical voting information mailers, voter address confirmation cards and absentee ballots, with widespread reports from local election officials about postmarked ballots taking longer to arrive than the three to five business day standard for First Class delivery.

“For example, election officials in multiple states report receiving anywhere from dozens to hundreds of ballots 10 or more days after postmark,” the two groups wrote to DeJoy. “There is no amount of proactive communication election officials can do to account for USPS’s inability to meet their own service delivery timelines.”

Election officials have emphasized the importance of voters returning ballots by mail early, but in nearly every state they are receiving timely postmarked ballots well after Election Day.

“Important election mailings are sent year-round, however, and lasting improvements to election mail processing require continuous attention and emphasis,” the letter says. “Temporary measures will not be sufficient to address the persistent issues highlighted by election officials.”

Meanwhile, the mail delivery delays are attracting scrutiny from a bipartisan group of Georgia’s congressional delegation.

Several Republican Georgia members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Andrew Clyde, Mike Collins and Austin Scott, have requested updated information from DeJoy to explain mail delays.

Georgia Democratic U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have also asked DeJoy how his organization plans to resolve the problems that caused Georgia to be ranked last in the postal service’s 2024 quarterly performance report in June.

This spring, Warnock and 18 other senators requested updated information from DeJoy regarding concerns that changes to mail processing in Georgia would lead to more disruptions to mail delivery and mail-in ballot delays.

The Georgia congressional delegation expressed particular frustration with the new Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto that opened in February. The Palmetto facility, about 30 miles south of Atlanta, is one of 60 postal centers across the country undergoing an overhaul intended to increase efficiency.

The letter was signed by Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath, David Scott, Hank Johnson, Nikema Williams, Sanford Bishop and Republican Rich McCormick.

The lawmakers asked what the postal service is doing to improve mail delivery times.

“So far, USPS has failed to live up to this standard in Georgia. Since the opening of the new Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center on February 24, 2024, we have increasingly heard from Georgians about disruptions and delays in their essential postal services,” Warnock and his colleagues wrote in the letter to DeJoy.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter was among a group of south Georgia and north Florida congressmen who sent DeJoy a letter on June 25 demanding that the postal service make improvements to its mail facility in Jacksonville, Florida, after months of complaints about late and lost mail.

“Our constituents rely on the USPS for timely delivery of newspapers, life-saving medications, and all other types of parcels,” wrote the group of Georgia and Florida officials. “Some of our constituents have lost confidence in the postal system that was established before the founding of the United States. It is unacceptable for your tenure atop this department to stain a more than two-century-old reputation.”

The postal service has expressed confidence that it can deliver millions of absentee ballots in a timely manner, referring to the 2020 election when a record number of Georgians submitted absentee ballots. Following the outbreak of the pandemic, the Georgia State Election Board adopted the emergency rule allowing mailing of absentee ballot applications to all registered voters during the general election cycle, which was headlined by the presidential election between GOP incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Earlier this year, Paulding County Supervisor of Elections and Voter Registration Deidre Holden said it took two to three weeks longer than normal to receive new precinct cards notifying voters of changes spurred by redistricting. Holden said the postal service had been slow to deliver those cards and mail absentee ballots to voters who requested them.

“Their lack of concern in delivering mail will be detrimental to our absentee voters in May and November, when their votes can affect the outcome of a close election,” Holden said.

Norcross financial planner David Cross mentioned at an Aug. 7 State Election Board hearing that Warnock and Ossoff were among Georgia officials who sounded the alarm about the problems with postal service delivery.

Cross presented a rule seeking to add mail-in ballot tracking so voters can monitor the status of their absentee ballots during the mailing process.

“Murphy’s Law says that that which can go wrong, will go wrong,” Cross said. “I’m willing to bet 100 bucks that there’s going to be problems with the mail-in ballots that need to be received back. At least if we’re using the service for tracking ballots and requirements and this ability to track, the election directors will know if a ballot was delivered or not.”

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Georgia Recorder.