East Arizona News

As the U.S. relies heavily on mail-in ballots during the November elections, even the post office admits its delivery is slow in key battleground states.

Four out of 13 postal districts in battleground states didn’t meet any first-class services goals between April 1 and June 30 and six achieved just one, NPR reported.

"I believe it is highly likely that in the November general election, the absentee ballots of at least tens of thousands of voters will arrive at election offices after Election Day and will not be counted unless the Ballot Receipt Deadline is extended," Ronald Stroman, deputy postmaster general from 2011 until June 1, wrote in a recent court filing, NPR reported.

"When I have people telling me that they're going days without getting mail, that makes me nervous," Rochester Hills City Clerk Tina Barton told NPR. Her town has some of the lowest on-time delivery rates in the U.S., according to NPR.

State Sen. Sylvia Allen (R-Snowflake) is also concerned about mail-in ballots.

“I do not support mass ballots being mailed to every person without them registering to vote,” she told East Arizona News. “That would leave the door open for illegal votes. I strongly support people taking the initiative to register to vote and then show ID when they vote.”

She also supports legislation that states if a voter misses the deadline for mail-in ballots, they would have to go to their precinct and vote in person.

“This will stop the log jam of ballots being dropped off on election day that take days to verify and slow down the counting of ballots,” Allen said.

She worries that mail-in-voting will erode support for the election system.

“Taking two weeks to certify an election causes the public to lose confidence in the process,” she said. “Especially, as days go by oversight diminishes at the election center.”

The Postal Service has consolidated processing centers which means mail can be shipped for hours even if it’s only going a flew blocks away, NPR reported.