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Another red flag has been raised regarding mail-in voting as the presidential election approaches.
An audit conducted by the U.S. Postal Service showed that the agency failed to deliver political and election mail between 2 and 3 percent of the time, Just The News reported.
The Postal Service’s chief watchdog also warned that some ballots may be delayed or not counted in the coming election.
“We found that Postal Service personnel did not always comply with policy and procedures regarding all clear certifications, Election and Political Mail logs, and audit checklists,” the Postal Service Inspector General said in the report. “In addition, we identified processes and policies that could pose a risk of delays in the processing and delivery of Election and Political Mail.
“Further, we identified issues related to some Delivering for America operational changes that pose a risk of individual ballots not being counted,” the report said.
The watchdog said he made recommendations to improve mail-in ballots, but USPS managers disagreed with two of the solutions.
“Opportunities exist for the Postal Service to improve readiness for timely processing and delivery of Election and Political Mail for the 2024 general election,” the report said.
Just The News reported:
The inspector general said it studied the Postal Service’s compliance with its election mail requirements during the lead up to and completion of early primary elections from Dec. 1, 2023, through April 1, 2024.
It noted that while the mail service is committed to timely delivery, not all of the employees it audited at 15 mail processing facilities and 35 delivery units were following the rules and procedures. “We found 12 of 15 (80 percent) mail processing facilities did not complete all clear certifications according to policy” that ensures political mail got processed by daily required deadlines, the report said.
As a result, the audit found “between two and 220 ballots at the seven facilities after completion of the all clear process.”
Overall, ballots to voters were processed on time only on an average of 97.01 percent of the time, while ballots returned to election counting centers were processed about 98.17% of the time, the IG reported.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Texas voting rules that let seniors automatically vote by mail but not younger people.
Older voters can ask for an absentee ballot for any reason in Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In other states, older voters can only do this in certain situations.
Just as it rejected a similar challenge to Indiana’s voting laws in 2021, the court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from three Texas voters. Additionally, it twice declined to hear earlier versions of the Texas lawsuit that the Texas Democratic Party had filed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The challengers argued that the 26th Amendment forbids age-based discrimination, which is what the unequal treatment of voters amounts to.
Ratified in 1971 to lower the voting age to 18, the amendment says the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged … on account of age.”
“Whatever voting rights a state grants to people aged 65 and over, it must also grant to people under 65,” the Texas voters told the Supreme Court in their unsuccessful appeal.
They wanted the court to reverse an appeals court’s decision that Texas’ rules are legal since making it easier for some people to vote doesn’t make it harder for others.
Also, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said that the right to vote did not include the right to vote by mail when the 26th Amendment was made law.
Most states either mail ballots to all voters or let any resident ask for an absentee ballot.
