New USPS election division will oversee mail-in ballots

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States Postal Service is creating a division to handle election mail issues as part of an effort to ensure swift and secure delivery of ballots for the 2022 midterm election, officials said Wednesday.

The idea behind the creation of the Election and Government Mail Services is to have a permanent division dedicated to dealing with election matters, instead of handling issues one at a time as in the past.

Adrienne Marshall, executive director of the division, said Wednesday that the services will oversee “election mail strike teams” in every local and district community to address any problems that might arise.

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

The Postal Service was dogged by backlogs and questions ahead of the 2020 presidential election, in which more than 135 million ballots were delivered to and from voters.

Despite the pandemic, the Postal Service said it delivered 97.9% of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89% of ballots were delivered within seven days, in the 2020 election.

The Postal Service is sending guidance letters to election officials in each state and territory this week.

Postal workers are already hard at work delivering ballots this year. So far, nearly 40 million ballots have been mailed to and from voters during primary elections, officials said.