Postal closings could delay absentee ballots, legislators and election officials warn

Several state lawmakers and election officials are worried that closing mail processing centers will negatively affect voting by mail, The Associated Press reports. Voters who take advantage of mail-in ballots are those who typically can't make it to the polls or who live away from their voting precinct, usually the elderly and college students. The U.S. Postal Service has proposed closing hundreds of mail processing centers and post offices, mostly in rural areas. (AP photo)

In California, where about 40 percent of voters are permanently registered for absentee ballots, almost 6 million people voted by mail in 2008. Lawmakers and officials there are considering extended the voting period for mail-in ballots, the AP's Hannah Dreier reports. The move could delay election results by days or weeks. Election officials are worried longer delivery times caused by postal closings will disenfranchise tens of thousands of absentee voters. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said mailed ballots from places where distribution centers closed took two to four days longer to reach county election offices than those from places with open centers. Bowen sent the postal service a letter urging it to halt closures until after the November elections.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has also asked the USPS to delay closings to "accommodate Montanans who vote by mail," reports Lorna Thackeray of the Billings Gazette. Absentee voting has increased three-fold in Montana since 2008, and 47 percent of voters cast ballots by mail in 2010. the USPS has agreed to delay closures until May 15 and again during the general-election season, Thackeray reports. But Montana's primary election isn't until June, and Tester told the postmaster general that closures would prevent absentee ballots from being counted. He asked, "If changes must be made which would affect Montana's primary election, I ask you, how you will ensure that you are protecting Montanan's right to vote? Will you consider hand-canceling ballots or providing ballot drop boxes at local post offices?"

Last October, Congress asked the Government Accountability Office conduct a study to determine whether increased voting by mail could financially help the postal service. The GAO "found that voting by mail has limited potential for providing USPS with additional revenues substantial enough to affect its deteriorating financial condition because of the small potential increase in volume relative to total mail volume, the low profit margins on election mail, and the lack of strong nationwide support for voting by mail." (Read more)