Mail-in ballots only have to be postmarked on the last day of the election. The post office and numerous states have claimed they are completely unprepared for mass mail-in ballots - every one of which has to be individually inspected - and then non-expert partisan election department employees deciding which ballots to throw out pretending they are handwriting experts for each and every ballot.
So... when, if ever, will we know the outcome of the 2020 election?
joko
You have a good set of questions there.
Below is a message from me to another blog site.
I am trying to understand the mass media can call this USPS situation a crisis when, as I understand it, it is within the control of the state election officials to get ballots out there to the voters early so that voters (at least those who are not brain dead) can mail in the ballots in time for them to be received, sorted, and counted before election night?
Does that seem like a big problem to anyone?
Is there a conspiracy afoot that I am missing?
Is the Administration doing anything to block this process that is in control of state election officials and the voters?
(here's my message to another set of readers)
Please enlighten me. Are Democrats who believe Trump is trying to sabotage the voting process simply ignorant or are they just nefarious in their attempt to (once again) paint Trump as evil?
What is wrong with the advice the USPS is giving state election officials?
Of course, both parties are trying to use the issue of mail-in voting to their advantage. But is the voting public smart enough to understand it is up to them to request a mail-in ballot early and the mail in their vote early? And of course, state officials need to get the ballot out there early.
from today's Wall St Journal:
The Postal Service’s Good Election Advice
This isn’t sabotage. It’s an attempt to avoid state election failure.
Aug. 16, 2020 3:40 pm ET
News broke Friday that the U.S. Postal Service has warned dozens of states, via letters from USPS General Counsel Thomas Marshall, that their deadlines “for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards.” On cue, Democrats and the press portrayed this as evidence of Trumpian sabotage and voter suppression.
In reality, it’s closer to the opposite: an attempt by the USPS to forestall state election failure. The letters were planned before the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, took the reins on June 15. Mr. Marshall sent nearly identical advice to election officials in a May letter posted at USPS.com. Strange public conspiracy.
“To account for delivery standards and to allow for contingencies (e.g., weather issues or unforeseen events), voters should mail their return ballots at least 1 week prior to the due date,” Mr. Marshall wrote in May. The same rule, he added, should apply to blank ballots: “The Postal Service also recommends that state or local election officials use FirstClass Mail and allow 1 week for delivery to voters.”
That seven-day deadline “is unrealistic,” Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, testified in court last month. The state board has argued for moving it back to 14 days, in line with the USPS suggestion of allowing seven days for delivery each way. Is Mr. Kellner complicit in postal sabotage?
Some states have even shorter deadlines. “Requests to have an absent voter ballot mailed to you must be received by your clerk no later than 5 p.m. the Friday before the election,” says Michigan’s Secretary of State. That’s a mere four days (including a Sunday) before the voting. If a Michigander files a request on Oct. 30, how realistic is it to expect that the ballot can be processed, mailed, voted and return mailed—all by Nov. 3?
The USPS understandably does not want to be set up for failure, which is evident in the laconic comment of its spokeswoman. “The Postal Service,” she said Friday, “is asking election officials and voters to realistically consider how the mail works.”
President Trump isn’t helping Mr. DeJoy with his contradictory claims that mail voting will be “rigged,” even as he says the USPS needs more money to execute it. But Democrats are as culpable for spinning post-office conspiracies without evidence. Barack Obama fed the political misinformation feedback loop on a podcast Friday by saying President Trump is trying to “actively kneecap the Postal Service.” On Saturday morning, protesters followed the former President’s lead and banged pots and pans outside Mr. DeJoy’s Washington, D.C., condo.
The people who really need a wake-up call are election officials in states like Michigan and New York, and the media are giving them a pass.