Election and Political Mail are part of a long tradition in American political history.
Election Mail is any item mailed to or from authorized election officials that enables citizens to participate in the voting process. It includes items such as ballots, voter registration cards, and absentee applications that an authorized election official creates for voters.
Political Mail is any mailpiece sent for political campaign purposes by a registered candidate, a campaign committee, or a committee of a political party to promote candidates, referendums, or campaigns. Material mailed by a political action committee or organization engaging in issues advocacy or voter mobilization is also considered political mail.
As the Postal Service’s oversight agency, we are committed to verifying efficient and reliable delivery of Political and Election mail nationwide by postal employees. Our Office of Investigations is committed to investigating complaints of illegal or improper activities by postal employees during elections. Similarly, our audit teams, throughout the midterm and general election, complete nationwide, unannounced reviews of facilities and processes to check for policy compliance and policy effectiveness for the processing and handling of Political and Election mail.
Most recently, we released our audit evaluating the Postal Service’s readiness for timely processing and delivery of Election and Political Mail during the 2024 primary and general elections – Election Mail Readiness for the 2024 General Election. For this audit, we conducted observations at 15 judgmentally selected mail processing facilities and 35 delivery units located in 13 states and Puerto Rico during primary elections in February and March 2024. We reported the Postal Service processed Political and Election Mail with on time processing scores ranging from 97.01 to 98.17 percent. However, as a result of our observations, we found USPS personnel did not always comply with policy and procedures, and we identified processes and policies that could pose a risk of delays in the processing and delivery of Election and Political Mail. We also discussed Delivering for America plan operational changes that pose additional risks to timely processing of Election Mail.
Similar to previous election cycles, our auditors and investigators plan to visit 1,000 postal facilities in all 50 states and Washington DC for the general election to review processes and controls. We will use these visits to identify problems that may require immediate action by the Postal Service, and we will summarize this work in our report on Postal Service 2024 election performance.
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