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US Postal Service Makes Announcement on Mail-In Ballots Ahead of Midterm Elections

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


The United States Postal Service confirmed it has created a division that will oversee mail-in ballots in future elections.

Adrienne Marshall, executive director of the newly created Election and Government Mail Services, announced that the new division will oversee “election mail strike teams” in local communities to deal with possible problems.

“We are fully committed to the secure and timely delivery of the nation’s election mail,” she said.

“This proposal expands on the essential public services that the Postal Service provides to the American people and will also help to relieve budget strain on local election offices across the country,” the Biden administration wrote in March.

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It also includes policies to make “official ballot materials free to mail and reduce the cost of other election-related mail for jurisdictions and voters” while “enhancing the Postal Service’s ability to securely and expeditiously deliver and receive mail in underserved areas,” the White House said at the time.

“Several months ago, the Biden administration requested $5 billion to support the USPS’s mail-in voting operations over the next 10 years,” the Epoch Times reported. “The USPS claimed it delivered 97.9 percent of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89 percent of ballots were delivered within seven days, during the 2020 election. The Postal Service is sending guidance letters to election officials in each state and territory this week. So far, nearly 40 million ballots have been mailed to and from voters during primary elections.”

Mail-in ballots and drop boxes have become a huge debate following the 2020 election.

Last week, Republicans filed a lawsuit to throw out Pennsylvania’s controversial mail-in voting law.

“The suit, filed Wednesday by 14 state Republican lawmakers, contends that the court must invalidate the law because of a provision written into it that says it is “void” if any of its requirements are struck down in court. The lawsuit says the non-severability provision was triggered in a May 20 decision by a panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerning mail-in ballots in a Lehigh County judicial race from last November,” Fox News reported.

“The ballots in question lacked handwritten dates on the return envelopes, as required in the law. In the decision, the panel found that a handwritten date has no bearing on a voter’s eligibility and said it would violate voters’ civil rights to throw out their ballots in that election simply because they lacked a handwritten date. The panel also pointed out that ballots with incorrect dates had been counted in that election. An appeal by the Republican candidate in the race is pending to the U.S. Supreme Court,” the report added.

Pennsylvania’s 2019 mail-in voting law has become a hot topic for Republicans on the campaign trail, with Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano vowing to repeal it if he gets elected.

Last month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Democrats by banning the use of most ballot drop boxes, which were prevalent in the 2020 elections.

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Around the same time, a judge in Arizona denied a bid from Republicans to bar the state from using “no excuse” mail-in voting in November’s crucial midterm elections.

Republican plaintiffs argued the state constitution described voting as taking place at the polls, not via mail, but Mohave County Superior Judge Lee Jantzen maintained nothing in the state constitution prohibited no-excuse mail-in voting, which allows voters to utilize an absentee ballot without giving a reason.

Arizona has allowed “no-excuse mail-in voting” since the early 1990s, whereas many other states require voters to have a valid reason such as medical conditions to be eligible. Arizona has one of the highest usages of mail-in ballots in the country, and Republicans are attempting to clean it up.

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Additionally, Pennsylvania lawmakers took another step towards enhancing election integrity ahead of what are expected to be highly contested midterm races.

The Commonwealth banned public officials from using private funds to conduct elections.

And in Missouri, lawmakers passed a measure that was signed by Gov. Mike Parson aimed at significantly enhancing election integrity.

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