US Postal Service delays threaten to disrupt election voting, officials say

‘We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerts,’ two election officials groups wrote in a letter to Louis DeJoy, the US postmaster general. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

State and local election officials from across the country on Wednesday warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election, telling the head of the US Postal Service (USPS) that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.

The officials said in a letter that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted.