Postal delays worry election officials with deadlines looming

With Election Day around the corner, election officials from Florida to Washington State are warning significant delays in mail ballot returns could end up disenfranchising voters. 

Around 20,000 Washington State voters could have their ballots rejected because of delays, through no fault of their own, a new report this week found.

The concerns come after the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) made changes that reduced mail pickups to once a day in certain areas. Earlier this year, USPS separately implemented rules, on the orders of President Donald Trump, that could have upended mail voting for the midterms. The new rules were ultimately blocked by the Supreme Court.

In Florida, Broward County Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott told Democracy Docket that the troubling delays are new this year, with a lack of transparency worsening the situation. 

“From my point of view, the Postal Service is not operating on the level that they have in the past,” Scott said. “Stuff is moving very, very slowly. We’re getting a lot of calls and a lot of complaints from people about how long it’s been since they mailed their ballot, including locally.”

Scott said he believes around 90% of all ballots sent out have been returned within nine to 11 days. His son’s ballot, sent from Orlando, did not arrive in Fort Lauderdale for two weeks, he said.

Some ballots are also coming in without a postmark, Scott said. This means he cannot see how long the processing facility in Opa-locka had them before sending them to Fort Lauderdale, roughly 20 miles away. The facility has denied his requests to visit and observe processing this election, according to Scott.

Broward, Florida’s second-largest county, includes Fort Lauderdale and has the most registered Democrats in the state. It issued nearly triple the number of ballots to Democrats than to Republicans this year, according to unofficial mail voting data.

Some of the delays follow the Postal Service’s recent agency-wide overhaul through a Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) program that made changes to mail pickup. It mandates that mail is collected only once a day for ZIP codes farther than 50 miles from a regional center. 

The changes will eventually cover up to 70% of ZIP codes in the Lower 48. 

In some states, ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 will count if they arrive at an election office later in the week, up to certain state-authorized deadlines. 

But Florida requires ballots to arrive at an election office by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted. And there are 69,068 mail ballots outstanding, out of a total 184,639 issued, according to the supervisor’s data. 

“So you know if the Postal Service holds up thousands of ballots and those ballots come to us the next day for any reason whatsoever, those ballots are not going to get counted,” Scott said. “And there needs to be transparency about how this is working.”

While it’s not clear whether the delays are entirely tied to RTO, Scott is strongly urging voters to drop off their mail ballots at one of the many in-person drop-off sites across Broward County. Those concerned can also cast a ballot in person during early voting or, on Nov. 3. 

An analysis last week shows that the RTO system is also affecting significant portions of North Carolina. 

Counties with reduced mail service in the 2026 midterm primary election saw more than double the rate of rejections solely because ballots arrived late, the analysis reveals.

A majority of the state has service reduction planned or in place. Guilford County, where Greensboro is located, is not currently affected by RTO. But the urban hub still receives mail from across the state.

Carolyn Bunker, a Democrat on the Guilford Board of Elections, told Democracy Docket that chief among her concerns this election cycle is how slow the Postal Service has been moving. 

“You know, the Postal Service is so unreliable now,” Bunker said. “I live here in High Point and I’ve sent birthday cards to friends in Greensboro, and it’s been like seven or eight days.”

She’s especially worried now that nearly 6% of all ballots are being flagged with problems, meaning voters must either resubmit their ballots or send in a form correcting the errors — both of which go through the mail. 

In Washington state, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D), in an announcement Wednesday, encouraged voters to bring mail ballots to a drop box, warning delayed postmarking could risk an uncounted vote.

More than 90% of rural Washington is impacted by RTO, and a new report from the University of Washington found that around 20,000 voters could have their ballots rejected because of delays, through no fault of their own.

A Monday statement from the Secretary of State’s office reported ballot rejections increased by 300-500% in some counties because of problems with the Postal Service.

“This shows a significant increase and clearly disenfranchises eligible voters,” the statement reads. 

*Jen Rice contributed reporting to this story