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However, the recent USPS directive has instructed postal workers to bypass these centralized facilities and deliver absentee ballots directly to local Boards of Election (BOEs) without the standard scanning procedures. This means that the usual chain of digital records—a crucial audit trail—will be absent. There will be no comprehensive count of absentee ballots moving through the mail, and as a result, no reliable way for external observers to verify that the number of ballots received by election officials matches the number actually mailed by voters. With the imaging process deliberately omitted, election observers and watchdog groups lose a powerful tool that could independently verify or challenge local election authorities’ claims.
This sudden change also undermines confidence in an already tense electoral environment. With only a month until Election Day, altering fundamental mail handling procedures is bound to generate suspicion. For many voters, the safeguard that USPS imaging provides—an objective count of ballots—is a reassurance that the process is being conducted fairly. By sidestepping this layer of accountability, USPS has inadvertently fed into the narrative that absentee ballots are vulnerable to manipulation. For an electoral system that is often scrutinized for potential vulnerabilities, eliminating an established verification method only adds fuel to those concerns.
Another problem arises with the lack of transparency. Informed Delivery, a service offered by USPS, has allowed voters to digitally preview their incoming mail, providing them with an image of their ballot envelope. This transparency not only gave voters confidence but also created another line of defense against fraud—any inconsistency between what a voter expected and what was delivered could be flagged. Without the centralized scanning process, this transparency is also lost. Voters now have fewer assurances that their ballot has traveled safely through the system or reached its intended destination.
Ultimately, the USPS directive introduces an alarming level of uncertainty into the electoral process. Election integrity is not just about preventing fraud; it is also about ensuring that the systems in place foster trust. By removing the ability to confirm that the numbers of ballots mailed, received, and counted are consistent, the USPS is inadvertently creating opportunities for discrepancies. These discrepancies, whether intentional or not, could easily undermine public confidence in the outcome of the election.
In conclusion, the last-minute USPS directive to bypass centralized scanning of absentee ballots has significant ramifications for election integrity. It removes a key verification step that has historically helped ensure the legitimacy of mail-in voting. By stripping away a vital layer of transparency, this directive leaves voters and observers in the dark about whether the number of ballots reported by local election authorities truly reflects those mailed. In a time when public trust in elections is already fragile, such a change—made just weeks before Election Day—could prove deeply damaging to the perceived legitimacy of the entire electoral process.
The directive to bypass central facilities and route ballots directly to local BOEs means mail-in ballots can't be imaged. Normally, centralized processing provides an audit trail via USPS imaging records. Without it, independent verification of ballots becomes impossible.
1:51 AM · Nov 1, 2024
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