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Since the 2020 Covid Election, the USPS has effectively become the largest “Precinct” in our elections with no citizen observation. When citizens try to get involved there is a total lack of transparency, no tours of facilities, no meetings with local, regional or national officials, no citizen advisory groups and no meaningful oversight by Congress or any federal agency. The Election Integrity Network, Vote-By-Mail/USPS National Working Group has found many vulnerabilities in the USPS Election Mail System, and has prepared this report.
In the 2020 election the USPS handled approximately 135 Million pieces of election mail, with no “Chain of Custody”. Ballots going to voters are delivered to the USPS in trays that are weighed by the USPS to determine the number of envelopes in the tray. The election office has a count, but the USPS has an estimate. There is no reconciliation that follows, ballots delivered, plus undeliverable ballots returned to the election office, equals ballots received from the election office.
Recommendation: The USPS should develop a system that accurately maintains a “Chain of Custody” for all election mail, and reconciles ballots delivered, plus undeliverable ballots returned to the election office, for every election jurisdiction.
The voter rolls in most (ALL!) states are a disaster with millions of voter registrations that should be removed. As a result, millions of vote by mail ballots, going to voters that are dead, moved, married, etc., are undeliverable and should be returned to the election office. We know that in many cases, too many cases, these ballots, for a number of reasons are actually delivered.
Recommendation: The USPS should have a system that prevents election mail from being delivered to a voter who is no longer at their registration address, and that all of this undeliverable mail is returned to the election office.
The USPS has an election mail tracking system that depends on the barcode that the election office is using. The USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) contains all the information about how an envelope is handled. One of the services is tracking through the USPS system, at an additional cost, so many election offices don’t provide tracking. The USPS tracking system isn’t very good. It’s all done by machine and many scans are missed. Unbelievably, the last scan before delivery is not as the letter carrier delivers the mail, to the voter or back to the election office, but in the processing center before the letter carrier gets it.
Recommendation: The USPS should set a reasonable cost for Trackable Intelligent Mail Barcodes (IMb), and they should be required on all election mail. Every letter carrier has a scanner and they should be required to scan election mail envelopes at the point of delivery, just like an Amazon package. Under the current system there is no way to know if the voter actually revived their ballot.
The USPS has a program called “Intercept/Redirect” mail. Anyone with an envelope barcode can go online and intercept and redirect an envelope. Many election offices are using third parties to handle the mailing of their vote by mail ballots. They are also using third parties to track ballots. All of these outside organizations, many of them Left-wing nonprofits, have access to the election mail barcodes.
Recommendation: The USPS should restrict their “Intercept/Redirect” Mail Program, so that it can’t be used for election mail. It can be programmed into the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb).
The USPS has made a guarantee to election officials that every voter’s return ballot envelope will receive a postmark for the day that it was mailed by the voter. Recently, they have clarified that to jurisdictions that require ballots to be mailed by a certain date before or on election day. In jurisdictions where ballots have to be received by election day, this is not an issue. The postmark is applied to the envelope by a machine at a processing center. Under the new USPS mail distribution system that may mean mail is travelling out of state to the processing center creating a delay in the post mark. This issue was highlighted in a recent USPS Inspector General Report. Within a few days of the ballot deadline the USPS recommends that voters get a hand postmark, but voters don’t know to do that.
Recommendation: The USPS should fulfill their postmark guarantee, and create a system of placing a postmark on all election mail, in particular ballots, on the day the voter mails them. They should place a hand postmark on these envelopes at the receiving postal facility and immediately rout them to the local election office, without ever sending them to the regional processing center.
In 2021 the USPS introduced a complete restructuring program called “Delivering For America”. Unfortunately, this new program is creating service delays that may affect the delivery of election mail this year. This issue was pointed out in the recent USPS Inspector General Report. Under the new system, mail in some states is taken out of state to a regional processing center and then returned for delivery. They have also started a process to hold mail at the local receiving facility for one or two days to build efficient loads to the regional processing center. To save costs, they are sacrificing service.
Recommendation: The USPS should immediately stop delaying election mail by using the new system, and start handling all of it locally without sending it to the regional processing centers.
There have been two recent USPS Inspector General Reports that have been extremely critical of many aspects of the USPS mail handling systems. In some cases, these reports confirmed some of the concerns of the Vote-By-Mail/USPS National Working Group. A couple of those issues have been mentioned in this report. The latest report pointed out a total lack of training and management involvement in the USPS Election Mail System.
Recommendation: The USPS should immediately implement the recommendations of the USPS Inspector General Report.
Our elections should be secure, not convenient. Voting by mail may be convenient, but it is not secure. The Carter/Baker Report in 2005 said, “Voting by mail is the easiest way to commit voter fraud”. Voters have the false sense that putting a ballot in the mail is just like voting on election day. The bottom line is never put a ballot in the mail. There is no way to know for certain that their ballot was received, processed and counted.
There should be more Congressional oversight of the USPS Election Mail System and other federal agencies, like the Election Assistance Commission, should be working with election officials to educate voters about the problems with voting by mail. The USPS does a very poor job of communicating with the public (Not at all!). Citizens can put pressure on their Congressmen to expose the problems described in this report.