Officials of the United States Postal Service announced Wednesday that the mailing company is establishing an election division to exclusively handle mail-in ballots during the midterms.
The Election and Government Mail Services will focus its energy and resources on matters pertaining to current and future elections.
Adrienne Marshall, the executive director of the permanent division, said it will supervise “election mail strike teams” in local and state communities to address any mail-in ballot concerns, AP News reported.
“We are fully committed to the secure and timely delivery of the nation’s election mail,” she said.
USPS decided to create this division after the nation’s first mail-in ballot season during the 2020 presidential election, which caused concern and questions among Americans unfamiliar with the voting process.
In 2020, over 135 million votes were delivered to and from voters, causing major backlogs in the country’s leading mail service.
Those votes were eventually delivered, despite the overwhelming number of ballots.
During the pandemic, 97.9 percent of mail-in ballots from voters to election officials were delivered within three days and 99.89 percent were delivered within seven days, USPS said.
Despite the company’s assurance of zero fraud or foul play, conservative figures voiced their doubts about the new initiative on social media.
Are you mailing in your ballot this year?
Do NOT put your ballot in the mail, trust me, I have a friend in the USPS. Ballots are not safe, they are often thrown in the trash and are constantly mis-sorted and sent where they should not be going, massive amounts of them. I’m told it happened in 2020 and it’s happening now
— Loren Culp (@LorenCulp) July 23, 2022
The Democratic response to the news, however, was much more optimistic.
?WOW! The US Postal Service is setting up a permanent ‘Election and Government Mail Services’, dedicated to dealing with election ballot issues. ? In 2020, 135M ballots were mailed to/from voters, including our overseas #votefromabroad.??? https://t.co/WYfYjUPJo7 #demsabroad
— Democrats Abroad (@DemsAbroad) July 30, 2022
Republicans have largely opposed mail-in ballots after former President Donald Trump claimed voter fraud in 2020, while Democrats have largely supported the voting process on a national level.
The Postal Service reportedly sent guidance letters to election officials last week, introducing them to how the new division will handle election mail issues, according to the AP.
The mail-in voting process has been going smoother so far this year, as almost 40 million ballots have been mailed to and from voters for the midterm election, USPS officials said.
