Trump's Trials - Can they U.S. Postal Service deliver mail-in ballots on time?

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, NPR voting rights correspondent Hansi Lo Wang takes a look at the U.S. Postal Service's ability to deliver mail-ballots on time for November's election. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Detro. Supreme Court justices have issued a major ruling and an election case. The Justice Department will be relentless in defending the right to vote. Will you accept the results of the election? If it's a fair and legal election, absolutely. In the coming weeks, millions of ballots will be mailed to voters across the country for this year's general election. Some election officials are concerned over the U.S. Postal Service's ability to deliver the mail-in ballots on time. Stick around, voting correspondent Hansi

Le Wang has more. Need a binge listen? Check out the latest series from NPR's embedded podcast. It's called Tested. Since long before the Paris Olympics, women in sports have been asked to prove their gender. There was chit chat about, is that really a woman? Listen to Tested, a new series from Embedded and CBC about the history and future of sex testing in sports. All episodes are out now.

For County Clerk John Whitaker, this year's primary election in Utah's Iron County left him feeling sick. When I stand before the board of commissioners and present the canvas of election results, it is a sacred thing to me. Whitaker spoke through tears at a public meeting in June. I stand and present the results, my procedures, the turnout, any problems and how it went.

This time I feel that over 400 voices were silenced for no good reason. That's because more than 400 mail-in ballots arrived with postmarks past the state's legal deadline. And I imagine you're used to this, but this was at a scale that was really remarkable for you. Yeah, it was several times more than what we are used to seeing. So that's what kind of caught my attention and made me suspicious.

The US Postal Service says a number of those ballots were put into collection boxes too late to make the postmark deadline. But Whittaker says he wonders how much of this was the result of the USPS redirecting all of his county's mail from Utah to a processing center two and a half hours away in Las Vegas.

It's a kind of question other election directors around the country have been asking. We saw things that we weren't used to seeing in this primary cycle. New Mexico's Mandy V. Hill is the president of the National Association of State Election Directors, which recently wrote a letter to the postal service flagging concerns about mishandled ballots

and delivery delays. It's not these one-off instances that we are able to resolve at a lower level. The concern really has been the fact that we're seeing a systemic issue. Let me be clear, the Postal Service is ready to deliver the nation's mail-in balance. In response, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says the USPS puts in place more resources and safeguards for general elections and points to 2020 when during the height of the pandemic, the Postal Service says it delivered more than 99% of ballots

from voters to election officials within seven days. Still, the inspector general's office for the postal service is concerned that the USPS has tried to cut costs with major changes to its operations during mail-in voting periods. We need to get on with our business because soon we will be in a situation when I arrived here about to run out of cash.

There's another reality mail-in voters should keep in mind, says USPS official Adrienne Marshall. We try to postmark every piece of mail. Sometimes it just doesn't happen. Marshall says if you want to make sure your ballot gets a postmark, stop by a post office, which can be hard to do for some voters. Well, I'm 81 years old and I'm just not keen on standing in line at the pole. Marjorie Ewen is registered to vote in Fairhope, Alabama. One of the packets that I'm waiting for is a cane to walk with.

So I hope I don't have to go to the post office because it's quite a drive. Julian Parms is a student at the University of Alabama who's registered to vote in her hometown about two hours away. Parms says she's worried about what could happen if she mails back her absentee ballot from campus. I can't control when it arrives. I can only control when I send it off.

That's why Parms says she's also considering driving back home with her mom so she can return her ballot in person. It's just a little disconcerting to have the most important part of the process and of my vote being counted be the one thing that I can't control. In this unpredictable voting season, both election and postal service officials say if you're planning to vote by mail, return your ballot at least one week before your state's deadline. Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens. I'm Scott Tetra.

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