Postal Service tells Florida its deadlines for mail ballots could lead to rejected votes

Florida ballots that are mailed in toward the end of October or later for the Nov. 3 presidential election might “not be returned in time to be counted,” warned a recent letter sent to the head of Florida’s elections by a top U.S. Postal Service executive.

“Under our reading of your state’s election laws, ... there is a significant risk that, at least in certain circumstances, ballots may be requested in a manner that is consistent with your election rules and returned promptly, and yet not be returned in time to be counted,’’ wrote Thomas Marshall, general counsel of the U.S. Postal Service, in the July 29 letter sent to Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee, who oversees Florida’s elections.

Florida law requires that mail-in ballots be received by no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day for them to be counted, except for overseas ballots, which have a 10-day extension.

The Washington Post reported Friday that 45 other states and the District of Columbia received similar letters from the Postal Service, warning that “it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted,” the Post reported.

President Donald Trump has been claiming for months, without evidence, that vote by mail is ripe for fraud. Congressional Democrats have been pushing for increased funding of the Postal Service ahead of the November election but that has stalled over negotiations in a coronavirus relief package.

The issue became more acute when Trump, in an interview with Fox Business on Thursday, said that he was taking a tough stand on Postal Service funds to make it harder to process mail-in ballots that could decide the election.

In the case of Florida, the Postal Service letter recommended that all mail-in ballots be sent back no later than Tuesday, Oct. 27, a week before Election Day.

But Florida law allows voters to request a ballot up to 10 days before Election Day. In cases where a voter requests a ballot in and around that time, “there is a significant risk” the ballot won’t be mailed back before the state’s Election Day deadline and therefore won’t be counted, the Postal Service letter said.

In fact, the Postal Service recommended that Florida voters submit their ballot request early enough so that it is received by elections officials at least 15 days before Election Day, and “preferably long before that time,” the letter said.

The Postal Service also recommended to Lee that election officials use first-class mail, not bulk-rate mail, to deliver blank ballots and allow one week for delivery to voters.

Some postal employees have raised concerns that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to Trump and other Republicans, would push for treating ballots as bulk mail, rather than the usual first-class mail.

As of Friday afternoon, 1.9 million vote-by-mail ballots have been cast for the Aug. 18, 2020, Florida primary and nearly 2.4 million have yet to be returned, according to the Florida Division of Elections.

Voters in Florida have the option of hand delivering their mail ballots to early voting polling places or on Primary Day or Election Day, dropping them off at their Supervisor of Elections headquarters.

A statement from Lee emailed to the Herald Friday afternoon said she “has made it a top priority to engage with local elections officials and the USPS regarding the timely delivery and return of vote-by-mail ballots for the August and November elections.”

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many voters have been opting to vote by mail during the primaries instead of standing in lines where social distancing isn’t always possible.

In fact, as many as 80 million mail-in ballots may descend upon elections offices nationwide this fall, according to a recent New York Times analysis.

Florida’s deadlines for requesting and submitting mail ballots have recently led to thousands of votes being rejected.

In the 2018 U.S. Senate race between the Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson and the Republican Gov. Rick Scott, more than 10,000 mail ballots were postmarked before Election Day but were deemed invalid because they did not arrive at elections offices in time to be counted, according to a Miami Herald analysis.

Deadline concerns aren’t the only issue facing mail-in ballots.

NBC News reported Friday that DeJoy, the postmaster, will be decommissioning 671 of its letter sorting machines located across the country. Losing these machines could mean a delay in the delivery of election-related mail.

The Associated Press has obtained memos that show Postal Service leadership has pushed to eliminate overtime and curtail late delivery trips needed to ensure mail is delivered on time.