The US Postal Service is getting a big, green thumbs-up for launching a new fleet of electric vehicles. However, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is still in the hotseat over mail delivery snafus in the leadup to Election Day 2024, which just goes to show that fleet electrification is not the same thing as getting all those mail-in ballots delivered to the elections office on time.
As for election protection, not so much. On September 11, state and local elections officials from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and all the US territories, sent an open letter to DeJoy outlining their concerns about mail delivery leading up to Election Day 2024, on Tuesday, November 5.
“Over the course of the last year, election officials across the country have raised serious questions about processing facility operations, lost or delayed election mail, and front-line training deficiencies impacting USPS’s ability to deliver election mail in a timely and accurate manner,” the group states.
Citing a recent USPS Office of Inspector General Audit of readiness for the 2024 election, the group zeroes in on systematic lapses in training, system-wide delivery delays, and a significant increase in the amount of mail mistakenly marked “undeliverable,” any or all of which could impact voters’ registration status or otherwise prevent them from voting.