HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Terry Thompson had an election to run for voters in Cascade County, Montana. Why then, she thought, was her workplace in Nice Falls being despatched mailed ballots accomplished by voters in locations corresponding to Vancouver; Wasilla, Alaska; and Tampa, Florida?
It was solely a few dozen ballots complete from voters in different states. However she stated it nonetheless raised issues in regards to the capacity of the U.S. Postal Service to ship election mail and whether or not the errant ballots would ever be counted.
“I mean, I would have had to been doing FedEx overnight envelopes to all these states to try to get them where they needed to go,” stated Thompson, the county’s election administrator.
She acquired a few half dozen others that ought to have gone to county election workplaces in different components of Montana. For these, she stated she “just had to hope and pray” they made it again on time.
Whereas a stray poll ending up within the fallacious place can occur throughout election season, the variety of ballots destined for different states and counties that ended up at Thompson’s workplace is uncommon. The Related Press discovered it wasn’t an anomaly. Election workplaces in California, Louisiana, New Mexico and elsewhere additionally reported receiving accomplished ballots within the mail that ought to have gone to different states.
To some election officers, it confirms issues they raised earlier than the Nov. 5 presidential election in regards to the U.S. Postal Service’s efficiency and skill to deal with a crush of mail ballots, as early voting has grow to be more and more in style with voters.
State election officers warned in September that issues with the nation’s mail supply system threatened to disenfranchise voters within the upcoming presidential election. In a letter to U.S. Postmaster Normal Louis DeJoy, the election officers famous issues throughout the primaries that included mailed ballots postmarked on time however acquired too late be counted and cases of correctly addressed election mail returned as undeliverable.
In Louisiana, state election officers stated some 40 to 50 ballots destined for 10 different states ended up being delivered to native election workplaces, largely in Orleans Parish. Deputy Secretary of State Joel Watson Jr. stated the Secretary of State’s Workplace had “extraordinary frustration” for the Postal Service’s continued “inconsistencies” and “lack of accountability.”
Dozens of mail ballots from contained in the state additionally have been delivered to the fallacious native election workplace, Watson stated.
“There were many instances where our staff had to physically take these ballots and drive them to another parish to get them there on time to make sure those votes count,” Watson stated. “We had to use time and resources in the hours and days immediately preceding the biggest election we hold to make sure these ballots were delivered to the right places.”
Louisiana legislation doesn’t allow poll drop packing containers, and Watson indicated his workplace doesn’t help shifting in that route and would proceed to encourage voters to solid their ballots in individual. He cited safety issues such because the arson assaults on drop packing containers in Washington and Oregon forward of the Nov. 5 election wherein ballots have been broken.
The U.S. Postal Service stated in an announcement that it had been working carefully with native election officers to resolve issues, however didn’t deal with particular questions relating to the misdirected ballots.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Employees Union, stated poll screens recognized some issues inside services throughout the election season however stated they have been resolved.
Nonetheless, state and native election officers reported quite a few circumstances of ballots ending up within the fallacious place.
In New Mexico’s Santa Fe County, County Clerk Katharine Clark stated seven ballots certain for her workplace have been as an alternative delivered to Los Angeles County in Southern California. These ballots have been redirected, Clark stated, however didn’t arrive at her workplace earlier than the state’s deadline to be counted, which is 7 p.m. on Election Day.
“It does mean that person got denied the right to vote, because the ballots from Los Angeles County — even though they were sent (to Santa Fe) with a four- or five-day lead time — they didn’t get to us in time to count,” she stated.
As well as, Clark stated her workplace acquired two ballots destined for Los Angeles County and one for Maricopa County in Arizona that she despatched again to the U.S. Postal Service. 9 ballots ought to have been delivered to different counties inside New Mexico.
Along with the Santa Fe County ballots, Los Angeles County election officers stated in addition they acquired two ballots that ought to have been mailed to Torrance County, New Mexico. That county’s clerk, Linda Jaramillo, stated she didn’t recall receiving the ballots from Los Angeles County however expressed religion within the nation’s mail service.
“There’s going to be a few,” Jaramillo stated. “You can’t have perfection.”
The California Secretary of State’s workplace stated about 150 mail ballots from Oregon voters have been misdirected to California earlier than being despatched again. Officers on the state election workplace in Springfield, Illinois, in some way ended up with a poll meant for Massachusetts.
“Yeah, I have no idea how that happens,” stated Matt Dietrich, spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Amy Cohen, govt director of the Nationwide Affiliation of State Election Administrators, referred to as the incidents “disappointing and heartbreaking.”
“Election officials don’t ever want to see misdelivered ballots, but it does happen for variety of reasons, not all of which are USPS’s fault,” Cohen stated, noting that voters can generally neglect to make use of the outer envelope that accommodates essential deal with data.
However Cohen stated the examples from this previous presidential election appear to mirror the problems that election officers had been frightened about since 2023 and have been highlighted of their September letter to U.S. Postal Service management.
“We hope they will get to the bottom of what went wrong to prevent it from happening again in the future and that they will be responsive to the issues escalated by the election community,” Cohen stated.
In Kansas, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican, was so annoyed after the August main with tons of of mail ballots arriving after the deadline for counting them that he posted on social media, “The Pony Express is more efficient at this point.” Schwab, in contrast to different Republicans, has touted using drop packing containers.
There have been no stories of ballots misdirected from or to different states, however Schwab stated in an announcement this week: “I still encourage voters to not use the USPS to mail their ballot unless there is no other option.”