With concerns mounting over how postal service delays could impact the November election, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is urging residents to vote early.
Changes to post office operations, including operation hours, removal of mailboxes, and removal of mail sorting equipment, have caused slowdowns that raise concerns about mail-in voting in November.
More than six-thousand ballots were thrown out after the August primary because they arrived late. Ballots need to arrive by 8 pm on election day to be counted.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said even more could be rejected in November for arriving late.
“The potential for over 10-thousand ballots to be rejected that otherwise should be counted because the US Postal service failed to deliver them by 8 PM on election day,” she said. “No voter should be disenfranchised because of failures at the postal service.”
Benson said she’s requested the legislature to change state law and allow late ballots to be counted.
But the best thing voters can do, she said, is to apply for a ballot and vote early.
“You can start requesting a ballot to be mailed to you 75-days before the election day which is this week. So it’s really important that voters familiarize themselves with all the options for voting this year.”
Benson said her office has also worked to place one thousand drop boxes across the state where residents can return their ballot.
You can apply for your mail-in ballot here.