SE Valley Times

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.

State Rep. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa), who is running unopposed for the state Senate, said those numbers illustrate the hazards of relying on mail-in voting.

“This is a perfect example as to why in-person voting, utilizing paper ballots and secure tabulation should be our ultimate goal,” she told the SE Valley Times. “In a world of convenience and instant gratification, mail-in voting should never have been added to the queue.”

She believes mail-in voting could cause voters to lose confidence in the system.

“There absolutely is an issue with decreased voter confidence, which worries me that voter turnout will be affected,” she said.

Even without an election to deal with, the U.S. Postal Service has been slow delivering mail during the COVID-19 pandemic, 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.

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.