Postal Service Sprints to Deliver Millions of Ballots by Tuesday, With Extra Staff, Facility Sweeps and Special Ballot Lines
USPS has delivered tens of millions of ballots and a record 4.2 billion pieces of political mail in the last two months, Reuters reports — and in the final days it is sweeping every facility, adding Sunday staff and driving ballots directly to election officials.
From longer hours and extra staffing to special lines in its branches, the U.S. Postal Service is taking an array of special actions to make sure mail-in ballots for the midterm elections are counted on Tuesday, Reuters reported on Monday, in a dispatch read in full by this desk.
In the last two months, USPS has delivered tens of millions of ballots and a record 4.2 billion pieces of political marketing mail — up more than 300 million pieces over the 2024 election cycle — according to the report. Thousands of workers are handling the final ballots: some branches may extend hours and set up a "Ballot Postmark Only" line at retail counters or a drive-through Ballot Mail option, and the agency is running expedited handling, extra deliveries and special pickups, with daily and sometimes multiple sweeps of all postal facilities in the final days to search for any remaining ballots. On Sunday, USPS brought on extra staff to collect, postmark and process mail to expedite ballot deliveries, Reuters reported.
The sprint carries political weight this year. President Donald Trump ordered the agency to write rules that would bar it from delivering ballots if states did not agree to turn over lists of eligible voters, and the Supreme Court blocked Trump and USPS from enforcing those rules in September, according to the report, which noted that Democratic voters disproportionately use mail-in ballots, according to various surveys. Amber McReynolds, chair of the Postal Service Board of Governors, told Reuters voting by mail seemed a little higher than in prior midterm elections in part because ballots went out earlier in some states, and said the agency has delivered ballots since the Civil War: "We've done it in a cross-partisan, non-partisan, apolitical way. We'll continue to operate that way."
For Essex County voters, the mechanics are the local story inside the national one: this station reported Monday morning that in-person mail-ballot applications at the County Clerk closed at 3 p.m. today, and Election Day itself is Tuesday, with polls open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Election Day, Reuters reported, postal workers will make extra trips to facilities for last ballots or may drive directly to get ballots in hand, working through a blizzard of varying state rules, ballot designs and deadlines — with a special portal, electionmail.org, giving local officials real-time help with mail-related ballot issues.
