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The United States Postal Service (USPS) said Monday they expect their “Election Mail performance in 2024 to be equal to or better than 2020.” But that doesn’t suffice when an election will be decided on the margins and numerous voters across the country are reporting that they never received the mail-in ballots that they requested.

In Scarborough, Maine, one voter told WGME that she voted in person on Monday because the mail in ballot she previously requested never arrived. It’s a similar story told by fellow Scarborough voter Glenn Grant, who reportedly wanted to vote by mail.

“But the ballot has never come, which says something about our mail service,” Grant told WGME.

Meanwhile USPS “failed to deliver an unknown number of ballots in Coos County, Oregon, and it didn’t deliver up to 300 ballots in Whitman County, Washington,” The Associated Press reported, citing election officials. Coos County Clerk Julie Brecke said her office has received nonstop calls due to ballots not arriving “as a result of an error at USPS,” according to The AP.

Meanwhile Whitman County said that a third-party vendor delivered roughly 24,000 ballots to the post office on Oct. 16 where they were all marked. But roughly 300 ballots are still missing.

“I don’t know where they went after that,” Whitman County Auditor Sandy Jamison said, according to The Associated Press.

In Bend, Oregon, the USPS claimed it has finally caught up with mail deliveries after several residents reported having not received their Nov. 5 election ballots, according to Central Oregon Daily News. Meanwhile, Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison recently warned that there was risk in waiting to send back an absentee ballot via the mail.

“I just can’t imagine a scenario, at least for myself, where I as a voter would take that ballot and put it into a mailbox, rather than putting it into a drop box,” Dennison said, according to OPB. “The longer you wait up until Election Day, the more risk you run that it may not [count].”

Deschutes County Republican Commissioner Patti Adair told The Federalist: “I wish we voted in person with ID, but for folks voting by mail, lags in the process creates apprehension.”

There was also a recent incident in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where an entire tray of absentee ballots were lost.

“Voters were calling, saying, ‘Hey, we didn’t receive our ballots,” City Clerk Joel Hondorp told The Federalist. “There’s a tray of ballots that were set to be mailed out. Looks like it may have got to the post office, we’re trying to figure out where the disconnect is.”

Hondorp says a tray holds approximately 300 ballots. He said his office was working with USPS to investigate the missing tray. Replacement ballots were sent to 100 voters who did not receive their requested absentee ballot.

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But it’s not just the general election seeing issues with USPS.

During the June primary in Utah, hundreds of voters said their votes were not counted because USPS failed to postmark their ballots by the specified date. One voter, Camille Topham, said she and her family dropped their ballots into a post box on June 23, the day before voters are required to have their ballots postmarked in order to be counted. But like hundreds of other Utah voters, she said she was later informed her vote wouldn’t count since it was missing the required postmark. The postmark was missing due to USPS processing.

A July audit of the primary elections by the USPS Office of the Inspector General found that facilities nationwide failed to follow Election Mail procedures and that “opportunities exist for the Postal Service to improve readiness for timely processing and delivery of Election and Political Mail for the 2024 general election.” One issue found was that “over half of the delivery units and processing facilities…visited were not properly” following USPS guidance on election related mail.

“Without full compliance, implementation, and a clear understanding of the Election and Political Mail policies and procedures there is a risk of improper handling, untimely processing, and late delivery of Election and Political Mail,” the audit found.

The audit further found that “operational risks” could “delay timely processing and delivery of Election Mail.”

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2