USPS delays reforms and promises a smooth election-mail service

The U.S. Postal Service is confident it can once again deliver election mail in a timely manner despite increased delays in many parts of the country, seeking to assuage lawmaker concerns by promising to delay its reform efforts until after Nov. 5. 

USPS will again institute “extraordinary measures” to ensure ballots are sent out and returned quickly, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told a panel of the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, which include special actions agency employees must take to identify and expedite ballot delivery.

The measures will begin Oct. 21 and consist of extra deliveries and collections, special pickups, expanded hours at processing plants, Sunday collections and visual checks of various points for ballots. USPS is also conducting daily sweeps at its facilities for ballots and ensuring postmarks for any piece of mail identified as a ballot. 

“We will ensure that all necessary resources are available so that we can successfully fulfill our role in delivering the mail when election officials and voters choose to use our services as part of their election process,” DeJoy said, adding USPS has established a “robust and tested process.” 

So far, DeJoy said, postal employees are executing “fairly well” on its election plan, though he acknowledged the agency has improvements to make. A recent inspector general report found USPS overwhelmingly delivered political and election mail on time during the 2024 primary season, but said some workers failed to conduct key procedures such as performing "all clear" checks for ballots each day. The IG further found DeJoy’s signature Delivering for America plan to stabilize USPS operations and finances threatened the Postal Service’s election performance. 

DeJoy said on Thursday he would pause the rolling out of his “optimized collection plan” that requires mail to sit overnight at post offices instead of being collected each evening for transportation to a processing center beginning Oct. 1 and continuing through the election. The sites that have already implemented the new collection schedules will receive extra transportation for ballots specifically starting Oct. 21. DeJoy previously announced that most of his processing plant consolidation efforts not already underway would be paused until at least Jan. 1, 2025. 

The postmaster general said that even something as routine as maintenance on a machine would not take place in the run-up to the election without his direct sign-off. 

He is taking those steps, he said, “not necessarily because it's going to impact the mail, but because we're trying to to calm everybody down.” 

DeJoy acknowledged many of the initial rollouts of his changes have not gone smoothly, with on-time mail delivery plummeting in many of the areas that have piloted the reforms. He stressed that was not unexpected—noting “the first rockets that went to the moon blew up”—and promised the issues would not affect ballot delivery. 

“None of the modernizing or network rationalizing actions we have taken, or are in the process of taking, will impact our successful delivery of election mail, and any, in any event, any changes that could have a potential or perceived impact are being paused or delayed until after the election or until 2025,” he said. 

USPS recently announced, as has been requested by dozens of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, that it would seek an advisory opinion for its changes from the Postal Regulatory Commission. It will ask the regulators to weigh in on the consolidation plan, the new collection schedule and proposed changes to its service standards to allow for the slower delivery of mail. 

The latter proposal is likely to draw significant, bipartisan pushback, though it would not go into effect until after the election. The PRC previously called on USPS to pause DeJoy’s reform efforts, noting the agency in 2023 missed many of its performance, customer service and safe workplace goals. 

DeJoy’s announcement that he would pause any reform efforts until after the election came as local election officials in all 50 states earlier this month voiced concern in a letter to the postmaster general that his agency’s failures threatened prompt and thorough election mail delivery.

Postal employees are not properly trained, more election mail is being delivered late with some states receiving hundreds of ballots 10 or more days after postmark and ballots are increasingly being returned as undeliverable, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors said in their joint letter.   

DeJoy told committee members he has since reached out to the election officials and held meetings with his own election mail teams to address concerns. He and his executive team are meeting twice per week on election matters and are going through all of the complaints. DeJoy stood up an Election and Government Mail Services team in 2021 that meets year-round and has held 47 outreach events in 2024. DeJoy noted he also holds weekly meetings with the inspector general. 

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., sharply criticized DeJoy during the hearing for his reform efforts and the impact they have had in his home state. He said he was “heartened” that the postmaster general is pausing further changes until after the election and said he was pleased the “extraordinary measures” would be instituted as previous efforts around the election proved effective. Despite some disruptions, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and DeJoy’s prior reform efforts, USPS largely executed successful delivery efforts during the 2020 and 2022 elections when voting by mail increased significantly. 

Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, who chairs the subcommittee that hosted DeJoy on Thursday, said he held the hearing so the postmaster general would understand “clearly that it's a very deep concern among us.”