State officials wary of slower-than-usual mail delivery are extending mail-in ballot deadlines and making backup plans to smooth early voting in the weeks before the November election, but experts warn tens of thousands of ballots might still be thrown out.
During a historic surge of interest in mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic, a new postmaster general appointed by President Donald Trump has barred overtime and changed other policies that some complain are slowing mail delivery. And because ballots in most states must be in the hands of state officials on Election Day, delays could mean uncounted votes.
At stake is the credibility of the vote count in the more than 30 states, including battlegrounds Arizona and Michigan, which require ballots be received by the time polls close on Election Day or even earlier. The results from those states could be more than enough to tip the election. Democrats have accused Trump of trying to muddy the results by claiming that vote by mail is ripe for fraud. Ballot delays and uncounted votes only would deepen any controversy.
The concern over the Postal Service during the 2020 election -- the first that will rely so heavily on absentee voting -- has led state and local election officials to change vote-by-mail procedures and implement backup plans to prevent slow mail delivery from creating election havoc.
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In 2016, missing a deadline was the second-biggest reason a mail-in ballot was rejected, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
"It's definitely something we are concerned about and will be watching in November," said Gabe Rosenberg, a spokesman for the Connecticut secretary of state.
Legislators in Nevada and Mississippi have recently changed state laws to allow ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day even if they arrive much later. The governor of Connecticut, Ned Lamont, made a similar change Monday by executive order for the state's primary, while Minnesota agreed to set aside its deadline as part of a court settlement.
Voting-rights groups also are asking judges to extend ballot deadlines, arguing that they disenfranchise voters who have done nothing wrong. Justin Levitt, a Loyola Marymount University professor tracking coronavirus-related elections lawsuits, said judges in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and three other states have declined to do so, but other cases are still pending.
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Elections officials are also looking at other changes.
One of them involves switching some ballots to first-class mail, which costs 55 cents but arrives within two to five days, from bulk mail, which can take 10 days.
Washington State Secretary of State Kim Wyman said that switching all ballots to first-class mail would add another $2 million to the cost of the election in her state, which conducts all-mail elections.
Other states are looking at less expensive workarounds. Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, among others, have invested in ballot drop boxes, secure metal cabinets installed outside public buildings where voters can take their ballots, no stamp needed.
Rosenberg said Connecticut spent $400,000 of its Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act stimulus funding to buy drop boxes for every town, which it tested during Tuesday's primary. He said if mail delivery times become a problem close to the election, they'll more heavily promote the drop boxes in October and November.
"Voters can deliver their ballot directly to the towns without having to worry about the Postal Service," he said.
Several states, including Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, are also adding technology that would allow both elections directors and voters to track ballots as they move through the postal system, similar to the way consumers can track something they bought online before delivery.
U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Marti Johnson said in a statement that the agency was working closely with elections officials to ensure that ballots are properly marked and sorted to ensure prompt delivery.
"The Postal Service has ample capacity to adjust our nationwide processing and delivery network to meet projected election and political mail volume, including any additional volume that may result as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic," she said.