WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Postal Service has a warning for North Carolinians who hope to cast their vote by mail in this November’s election: request your ballot early and put your completed ballot in the mail with ample time for delivery.
In a letter to North Carolina leaders, USPS General Counsel Thomas Marshall advised that North Carolina’s election laws create the opportunity for mail-in ballots to arrive too late to be counted.
The letter states that in North Carolina, “certain deadlines for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards. This mismatch creates a risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be returned by mail in time to be counted.”
In North Carolina, you can request a mail-in ballot up to a week before Election Day. However, the postal service says that may not allow enough time for the ballot to arrive at a voter’s home and for the voter to mail it back in.
North Carolina was not the only state to receive this sort of advisory. The Washington Post reports that overall, 46 states plus the District of Columbia received similar warnings.
The letter comes as the Tar Heel state is seeing a surge in interest in mail-in voting, sparked at least in part by the coronavirus pandemic.
Already, more than 200,000 people have requested absentee by mail ballots, according to data compiled by Prof. Michael Bitzer at Catawba College. That is more than eight times the number of mail-in ballots requested at this point in 2016.
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So what should voters North Carolina do?
The postal service says voters should ensure that their absentee ballot request is in 15 days before the election “at a minimum.” The state’s deadline is a week before Election Day.
They also advise voters to put their completed ballot in the mail at least a week before it is due.
In North Carolina, ballots can still count if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive no later than three days after the election. Following the postal service’s advice, that means ballots must be in the mail by October 30.
For their part, the North Carolina State Board of Elections is going a step further, advising people to put their completed ballots in the mail no later than October 27 - a week before Election Day itself.
If a voter wants to sidestep USPS altogether, they can also drop off their ballot in person at their local county board of elections office or at one of their county's early voting locations.
North Carolina is already accepting mail-in ballot requests. Those ballots will start going out to voters in early September.
By Sept. 1, the state board will also be launching an online absentee ballot request portal on their website.
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The U.S. Postal Service has been in the national spotlight for weeks amid reports that policy changes at the agency are contributing to delivery delays.
The newly-installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy - a top GOP donor and North Carolina businessman - has argued that the organization needs to operate “efficiently and effectively.”
Several Democrats have raised concerns that DeJoy, a Trump ally, could be trying to sabotage the election.
Rep. Alma Adams, D-12th District, has repeatedly called for DeJoy to either resign or be removed.
The warning letters to the states were planned before DeJoy took on his current position, according to The Washington Post.
More information about mail-in voting in North Carolina can be found here.