Hakeem Jeffries Pushes for Maryland Redistricting

Largest ‘Precinct’: Why Some Mail Ballots Travel Across State Lines Before Counting Begins

Employment Up and Inflation Down New BLS Report Shows

Why Are Anti-ICE Activists Building Borders?

EXCLUSIVE: Heritage Says States Should Charge Tuition to Illegal Alien Children

Wisconsin Residents Reject ‘Minnesota Nice’ on Immigration

 PoliticsSocietyCommentary

Immigration Is Shaking Up Political Parties in Britain, Europe, and the US

Daughter Pleads for Father’s Release From Chinese Prison 

What to Expect in PLA Activities Near Taiwan Leading Up to Trump and Xi Summit

 InternationalCommentary

The Sensor Web That Could Shape the Indo-Pacific

 InternationalSecurityCommentary

What Maduro’s Capture Says About a Similar Raid by China on Taiwan

Hakeem Jeffries Pushes for Maryland Redistricting

House Republicans Pressure Senate to Force Vote on SAVE America Act

SOTU Boycott Urged by Gen Z Activist Group

Trans ‘Bill of Rights’ Could Jeopardize Women’s Spaces, Experts Warn

Largest ‘Precinct’: Why Some Mail Ballots Travel Across State Lines Before Counting Begins

Schumer Vows to Fight Supposed ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ Bill With Policy 83% of Americans Support

‘Want to Cheat’: Noem Rips ‘Conspiracy Theories’ Against SAVE America Act

Democrats to ‘Disenfranchise Voters’ With Election Integrity Opposition, GOP Says

‘War Was Visited Upon These People’: Play About Oct. 7 Comes to DC

Are Americans Being Radicalized Online and Converting to Islam?

International Analysis

Why Is the Iran Regime on the Verge of Collapse?

Trump Envoy Announces Next Phase of Gaza Peace Plan 

OH BABY! Couples Could Make Big Money on Trump Accounts

What Comes Next for Venezuela? State Department Official Explains

ICE Operations: What Americans Actually Want  

To End Minnesota Chaos, Cut Off the Funding

EXPOSED: Taxpayers Paying for Democrat Activists’ Grad School Tuition

Trump, Beware—These ‘Unforced Errors’ Could Hand Democrats a Midterm Win

China’s Quiet Infiltration of America

Rep. Balderson Discusses Ohio’s Key Role in Energy

Largest ‘Precinct’: Why Some Mail Ballots Travel Across State Lines Before Counting Begins

A senior age woman putting her vote by mail ballot into a mailbox. (Photo Illustration: O2O Creative via Getty Images)

Fred Lucas / @FredLucasWH

Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. He is the author of “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections.” Send an email to Fred.

The U.S. Postal Service system of handling and delivering mail ballots often leads to rejected or late ballots, election security advocates contend.  

The Election Integrity Network issued two recent reports on the handling of mail ballots by postal employees, and the use of regional mail processing centers across state lines. The reports claim that current practices could either result in delayed ballots or confusion over postmarks during an election. 

In the 2022 election, 549,824 mail ballots were rejected, about 1.5% of all absentee/mail-in ballots, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found. Common reasons for rejected ballots include non-matching signatures and missed deadlines.

“From the outside, those are just ‘undeliverable’ or ‘missing’ ballots in a large system,” an Election Integrity Network report released Monday says. “For each voter, it is the loss of the one voice they have in their own government.” 

For its part, the U.S. Postal Service counters that local election officials are responsible for matters such as enforcing deadlines, using barcodes, identifying eligible voters, and ensuring correct addresses for ballots. 

Further, the USPS is held accountable by the Postal Regulatory Commission, as well as through congressional oversight, said USPS spokeswoman Cathy Purcell.

“The report’s statements concerning the Postal Service reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the Postal Service’s role, which is to process, transport, and deliver mail, including Election Mail. The Postal Service plays no role in the administration of elections,” Purcell told The Daily Signal.

Part of the problem, noted the Election Integrity Network’s more lengthy report from last week, is the U.S. Postal Service lumps election mail in with all mail, shipped to regional shipping centers that are sometimes out of state where the postmarks are then issued.  

Thus, even if a voter mails their ballot on the day of the deadline, it might travel out of state to a distribution center and be postmarked the next day, the report contends.

“The USPS should immediately stop delaying election mail by using the new system, and start handling all of it locally without sending it to the regional processing centers,” the report says.  

The report contends the USPS is effectively America’s largest “precinct” because it has the largest number of individuals handling election mail with little or no citizen oversight. 

“There are so many problems with the U.S. Postal Service. I don’t think we should have universal mail-in voting with so many vulnerabilities,” Ned Jones, executive director of the Election Integrity Network, told The Daily Signal. “It often leaves the state and comes back. In the processing is where it gets the postmark.” 

The report from last week was based on data gathered by the EIN’s Vote-By-Mail/USPS National Working Group, with members from more than 20 states, Jones said.  

Purcell said that “state boundaries have nothing to do with the efficient movement of mail.”

She said a Post Office clerk can, when close to an election date, expedite delivery of a ballot to an election office, “without sending the ballot to the processing plant for cancellation and sorting.”   

“We employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all Election Mail, including ballots,” she said.

The network’s report also says that unreliable barcode tracking has frequently missed scans for ballots.

“The USPS tracking system isn’t very good. It’s all done by machine and many scans are missed,” the report states. “Unbelievably, the last scan before delivery is not as the letter carrier delivers the mail, to the voter or back to the election office, but in the processing center before the letter carrier gets it.”

Purcell stressed the USPS educates voters to mail ballots in a timely manner well before deadlines.  

“The long-standing Postal Service guidance on mailing ballots has been to mail your ballot before Election Day and at least one week before the deadline by which it must be received by your election office,” Purcell said. “The postmark date on a mail item doesn’t always match the day you mailed an item.”

She said the Postal Service strongly recommends the use of barcodes, but cannot mandate local election offices use them. She further noted, “It is the responsibility of the election office to maintain accurate names and addresses if it chooses to employ vote-by-mail.” 

The information comes as the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a major case about whether to continue counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day.  

The Election Integrity Network report made several recommendations.  

“The USPS should develop a system that accurately maintains a ‘chain of custody’ for all election mail, and reconcile ballots delivered, plus undeliverable ballots returned to the election office, for every election jurisdiction,” the report says.  

It also says the Postal Service “should have a system that prevents election mail from being delivered to a voter who is no longer at their registration address.” 

In December 2024, after that year’s election, the Postal Service noted it handled almost 100 million ballots, and 99.8% were delivered within a week. The USPS said the average delivery time from a voter to election officials was only a day.  

However, in April 2025, the USPS Office of Inspector General found about 40 million ballots lacked tracking data, and found “confusion in the field” about temporary mail flow changes for the election season. 

Scott Calls for Standing Filibuster on Voter ID Bill

Trump Teases ‘Interesting Things’ From Georgia FBI Raid, as County Prepares Legal Showdown

Democrats to ‘Disenfranchise Voters’ With Election Integrity Opposition, GOP Says

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

The Tony Kinnett Cast

The Daily Signal Podcast

© 2025 The Daily Signal Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

We use cookies on our website. By using our website, you consent to cookies.  Learn More .  

© The Daily Signal