(C) U.S. State Dept
This story was originally published by U.S. State Dept and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Securing Election Mail with the United States Postal Service (USPS) [1]

['Steve Monteith', 'Chief Customer', 'Marketing Officer', 'United States Postal Service', 'Adrienne Marshall', 'Director', 'Election', 'Government Mail Services', 'Brendan Donahue', 'Assistant Inspector In Charge']

Date: 2024-10

THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.

MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center’s latest briefing on the U.S. elections process. My name is Leah Knobel and I’ll be the moderator this afternoon.

A few housekeeping things before we get started. This briefing is on the record, and a transcript and video will be posted on our website later today. Journalists, please take a moment now to rename yourself with your name and media outlet.

Today I would like to welcome our briefers from the United States Postal Service, who will discuss securing election mail ahead of the 2024 U.S. general election. And I’d like to welcome Brendan Donahue, Assistant Inspector in Charge, Adrienne Marshall, Director of Election and Government Mail, and Steve Monteith, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer.

And with that, I will turn it over to our briefers for their opening remarks and presentation.

MR MONTEITH: Okay. Thank you, Leah. And thank you, all, for being here today. We’re delighted to have this opportunity to talk.

So over the next two and a half weeks, the entire U.S. Postal Service, from our Postmaster General to our letter carriers, our facilities teams all across the country – we’re fully focused on the critical mission of delivering the nation’s election mail, just as we have done in all prior elections since 1864. We’re proud to do our part to help American citizens who choose to use the mail to vote to do so effectively, and we’re very proud of this team and the dedication of our postal workers and the dedication they have to serving our nation.

The purpose of our briefing today is to provide you with an understanding of the specific role the U.S. Postal Service plays in the American election process. We’ll also share the longstanding processes and procedures in place to ensure that the Postal Service effectively and efficiently delivers the nation’s ballots. Our colleagues with the Postal Inspection Service will offer a closer look at the work being done to ensure the security of the nation’s election mail.

But first, it’s important to understand that the Postal Service is just one actor in the American vote-by-mail ecosystem. However, with 50 different states setting their own laws, requirements, deadlines, and ballot design, it’s the most constant and consistent actor in the ecosystem.

The increased popularity in voting by mail over the most recent elections has heightened the impact of the disparate approaches and variations in the vote-by-mail ecosystem. Furthermore, variations in state election laws and deadlines fail to carefully consider the mail system. Simply put, too many varieties in local and state requirements, laws, and deadlines puts the Postal Service in a position of hyperfunctioning and puts unnecessary stress and heightened scrutiny on the entire mail-in voting ecosystem.

So as you walk through the work that is underway at the Postal Service, I want to be very clear about what the Postal Service does not do. First, the Postal Service does not conduct elections in the United States or decide which ballots will be counted. That is done by state and local election officials and local boards of election.

Secondly, the Postal Service has no role in determining election laws or deadlines. Those laws and deadlines are set by state and local boards of elections that all have variations in their operational sophistication and local jurisdiction.

Third, the Postal Service does not determine what methods of voting are available, whether it’s in-person, early voting, absentee ballot types. Some states require an excuse; some do not. Some states send all ballots through the mail but still allow in-person voting.

Finally, we do not design ballots nor determine the length of the ballots and the envelopes.

So what is the role of the U.S. Postal Service in the vote-by-mail process? The Postal Service’s role is to process, transport, and deliver the nation’s election mail, including ballot mail. The Postal Service provides a secure, efficient, and effective way for citizens to participate in elections when voters choose to use the mail as part of the voting process. We employ a robust process to ensure the proper acceptance, processing, and delivery of election mail, and these processes have proven successful in past elections, including 2020 and 2022.

In the 2020 general election, the Postal Service worked effectively to deliver the nation’s ballots to and from voters to election officials; 99.9 percent of ballots were delivered from voters to election officials within seven days, and 99.7 percent of ballots were delivered from voters to elections officials within three days. On average in 2020, it took 2.1 days to deliver ballots to and/or from voters. These numbers fully demonstrate our ability to deliver on our role in the nation’s electoral system.

In the November 2022 general election, we had another strong performance, with 99.9 percent of ballots delivered from voters to election officials within seven days, and less than two days on average to deliver ballots from election officials to voters or from voters to election officials. We aim to deliver this excellent performance yet again in 2024.

I also want to be very clear that we have the capacity to handle a high volume of election mail in the final weeks of the election. This is evidenced by our performances in 2020 and 2022, as well as our performance in the past holiday season. We deliver 433 million pieces of mail a day. In 2022, election mail, including ballots, accounted for just 9/10ths – or 9/100ths of a percent of total mail volume. In 2020, when we saw a record number of voters choosing to vote by mail, ballots accounted for 11/10ths of a – 11/100ths of a percent of the total mail volume, so a very small percent of the volume that we deliver daily.

Today, the nation’s postal network is operating effectively without any major reported disruption. Service performance across the nation is strong. We move all election mail, including ballot mail, as quickly and effectively as possible once it enters our mail system. In the first three weeks of October, ballot mail performance scores were high; 97.8 percent of ballot mail was delivered on time when compared with the Postal Service’s service standards, and 99.9 percent was delivered within seven days.

Our message to voters who choose to use the mail in the coming days is simple: If you’re eligible to vote by mail and choose to do so, you should plan ahead to give yourself enough time to complete and return your ballot by your state’s deadline. Be sure to know your state’s requirements and recommendations on receiving a blank ballot and mailing competed ballots. Each state is different. You can find your state requirements online at www.usa.gov/elections-office.

Most importantly, we want to reinforce our message that, as in past elections, the United States Postal Service is ready to deliver your ballots on time. But don’t delay. If you choose to vote by mail, please mail early.

Now I’ll turn it over to Adrienne Marshall to discuss our operational efforts which are underway. Adrienne?

MS MARSHALL: Thank you, Steve. The Postal Service deploys longstanding election processes and procedures to deliver election mail. Throughout the year, the Postal Service conducts several activities to advance election mail, including conducting all-clears in facilities to ensure that election mail is being processed appropriately. Furthermore, we advance election mail ahead of all other mail in processing operations, no matter the time of year. Finally, we have continued to educate and train our employees on election mail processes through the distribution of operational memos and stand-up talks this fall.

As in previous general elections, the Postal Service is deploying extraordinary measures in the final weeks of the election season to swiftly move ballot mail either close to or on Election Day and/or the state’s return deadline. Extraordinary measures began on Monday, October 21st and will continue nationwide through Election Day and extend through the last day in each state that boards of elections will accept completed mail-in ballots as timely.

The extraordinary measures are designed to accelerate and enhance the delivery of ballot mail. When the Postal Service is ability to identify the mail piece as a ballot, the Postal Service’s extraordinary measures include, but are not limited to, extra deliveries and collections, special pickups, specialized sort plans as processing facilities to expedite delivery to the boards of elections, and local handling and transportation of ballots. These measures are consistent with our efforts in past elections. A complete list of extraordinary measures is available on our website and was distributed to all employees on September 26th.

Many states use postmarks as proof that a ballot was mailed – it was timely mailed, and our longstanding process has been to try to ensure that every return ballot that is mailed by voters receives a postmark. This policy applies regardless of the postage-paid method or indicia on the mail piece. Normally, we do not postmark or cancel every piece of mail in a typical – in our typical operations, as the primary goal of cancellation is to prevent postage reuse. However, for the election, we must try to ensure that every identifiable return ballot receives a postmark during retail operations or originating processing operations.

We have specific operational initiatives to support this goal, such as deploying ballot monitors and ambassadors, instructing hand cancellations at retail and in processing, and early collections in the week before Election Day. Despite our efforts, because this is a deviation from our normal postmarking practices, not all ballots will receive a postmark. For any domestic voter that wants to ensure that a postmark is affixed to their return ballot, postmarking is available at all of our 30,000 retail post offices across the country. Simply bring in your ballot to make sure that it is postmarked from your local post office. Our postmarking policy is available on our website and was distributed to all employees on September 26th.

Now I want to speak to how we are supporting uniformed officers and American citizens who are planning to vote by mail from outside the country. The Postal Service is committed to enabling citizen participation in elections from abroad. We have strong partnerships with the Department of State, the Federal Voting Assistance Program, and the Military Postal Service Agency. This teamwork supports successful use of mail when members of the military and diplomatic personnel, their families, and other overseas American citizens choose to use the mail to participate in elections.

The Postal Service maintains steady communications about possible disruptions that may impact delivery in an effected area via our USPS international service alerts webpage. We further recommend military voters visit fvet.gov – f as in Frank, v as in Victor, a as in apple, p as in Paul, .gov – for return ballot mailing dates.

Now I will hand it over to Brendan Donahue, assistant inspector in charge with the United States Postal Inspection Service. Brendan.

MR DONAHUE: Thank you, Adrienne. I am privileged to be here today to speak about the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s role in securing election mail. In this election cycle and every election cycle, the Postal Inspection Service is committed to ensuring the safe and secure delivery of election mail, the integrity of election mail, and the protection of election officials and election offices from threatening and dangerous mail. We understand the critical role we play, and we are resolute in our efforts to secure the delivery of ballot mail and all election mail. We take a whole-of-agency and a whole-of-government approach to this critical mission, employing extensive law enforcement resources and working in close coordination with our local, state, and federal law enforcement and security partners.

The U.S. Postal Service backs its mail service with the protection of its own federal law enforcement agency, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The Postal Inspection Service is the oldest federal law enforcement agency in the United States, and we are the primary law enforcement, crime prevention, and security arm of the Postal Service. The Inspection Service carries out its mission through its postal inspectors, postal police officers, and other professional and technical staff. We have local offices staffed in every state and most U.S. territories. We also have some offices overseas. Prevention of and the investigation into mail theft, identity theft, fraud, and dangerous mail are just some of the areas where we focus our law enforcement efforts and resources.

In regard to the security of election mail, the Inspection Service has a long history of securing election mail dating back to the civil war in 1864. We continue to carry on that proud tradition to today. The unique status of election mail makes its security a top priority for the Postal Service and Postal Inspection Service during every election cycle. All 16 Postal Inspection Service field divisions have designated election security coordinators who coordinate the response to election security concerns involving the mail and election mail inspections within their divisions.

Election mail inspections, formerly known as observations of mail conditions, are a process and operational security measure. As part of these inspections, postal inspectors and other Inspection Service personnel physically observe election mail processing and delivery operations. They review the physical security of election mail and the workplace, and they report their findings to Inspection Service and Postal Service leadership, including the Postmaster General and the chief postal inspector, so that corrective action may be taken for any concerns that are identified. Postal inspectors provide Postal Service managers and employees with guidance and recommendations to ensure election-related mail is handled securely and properly processed and delivered.

We provide guidance to Postal Service managers and employees on the identification and reporting of suspicious mail destined for election offices and election officials. The Inspection Service also works closely with the Postal Service’s Corporate Information Security Office to defend against, respond to, and investigate any potential attempts by hostile actors to infiltrate and disrupt the Postal Service’s network.

The Inspection Service’s efforts to secure election mail, to ensure the integrity of election mail and the protection of election officials and election offices, involves coordination internally at the Postal Service and also with critical external law enforcement and security partners. These partners include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General, as well as state and local law enforcement. The Postal Inspection Service works with the FBI, DOJ, USPS OIG to respond to criminal allegations affecting election security or election integrity.

The Postal Inspection Service also partners with local and state law enforcement on election security and election mail integrity matters when appropriate. As part of its commitment to protecting election officials and election offices from threatening and dangerous mail, the Postal Inspection Service serves as a member of the Department of Justice’s Election Threats Task Force. We coordinate these partnerships at a local level through our election crimes coordinators who are located throughout the country. Our election crimes coordinators also work with Postal Inspection Service’s election security coordinators and conduct outreach to local and state election officials on election security matters.

The Postal Inspection Service also works closely with our federal partners on election security, including cyber security and infrastructure security. As part of these efforts, the Inspection Service regularly participates in election security tabletop exercises with these partners as well as local and state election officials. The Inspection Service regularly advises these partners and other local, state, and federal partners on election security as it relates to election mail.

Earlier this year, the Postal Inspection Service in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Election Assistance Commission released new guidance to the election committee on how to prepare to handle suspicious mail, identify potentially suspicious mail, and respond to potential hazardous materials exposure while handling suspicious mail. The Postal Inspection Service is committed to maintaining and strengthening these relationships with our local, state, and federal partners.

With over 169 million delivery points within the United States, upholding the security of election mail and all mail is a team effort. We need the public’s help. We ask the public to please follow these tips to keep election mail secure: Don’t let incoming or outgoing mail sit in your mailbox. You can significantly reduce the chance of being victimized by potential theft by simply removing your mail from your mailbox promptly every day. Deposit outgoing election mail through a number of secure manners, including inside a local post office, simply by handing it to a letter carrier, or using a secure receptacle as designated by a local election office here in the United States. Sign up for Informed Delivery and get daily digest emails that preview your mail scheduled to arrive soon. Have your post office hold your mail while you’re away. Make arrangements online to do that at USPS.com.

Many states have online tracking tools here in the United States to help track the status of a ballot. If you believe there is an issue with the receipt or delivery of your ballot, contact your local election office to verify its status before you contact postal inspectors. We also need the public’s help in reporting election mail-related security or criminal incidents. To report suspicious mail and election mail-related security or criminal incidents in the United States, call our 24-hour national law enforcement communication center at 877-876-2455. For election mail-related security or criminal incidents, select option four. You can also report election mail crimes and others involving the U.S. mail at our website at USPIS.gov. Again, that’s USPIS.gov.

Emergent matters such as those involving threatening or dangerous mail or if someone sees someone stealing mail here in the United States – they should always be reported to local law enforcement first by calling 911. The Postal Inspection Service stands ready to ensure the safe and secure delivery of election mail this election cycle.

MS MARSHALL: Thanks, Inspector Donahue. And in closing, I would like to reiterate we are committed to the secure and timely delivery of the nation’s election mail, just as we have been since 1864. The Postal Service has a specific role in the process, and that is to process, transport, and deliver election mail, including ballot mail. We are deploying longstanding processes to efficiently move election mail in the coming weeks. We will maintain our close coordination with the USPIS and the USPS OIG to ensure the security and integrity of election mail. We encourage anyone choosing to vote by mail to please mail early. We appreciate your attention and your interest today to the Postal Service’s election mail operations through the 2024 election cycle. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Great, thank you very much for those remarks. We’ll now take some questions from the journalists that are joining us on Zoom today. Journalists, please click on the raise hand icon at the bottom of your screen, and when we call on you, please unmute yourself and turn your camera on if possible to introduce yourself and ask your question.

We’ll start with Jose from NTN24. Go ahead, Jose.

QUESTION: Hey, hello. Good afternoon, everyone. First of all, thank you for doing this. We have a question regarding the ID verification of those who are actually voting by mail, because we have listened in the past many claims of people saying that the vote by mail isn’t as safe and as trustful as it should be. So we would like to know how someone that ask for a ballot, you know that actually that person is who that person is saying that it is, and if you have any kind of check or checking instance to see if the ID of the person that is actually voting is the person that is registered to vote? Thank you.

MS MARSHALL: So I can take that one. So election laws and election rules are run by the states themselves. We don’t control who receives a ballot. Those ballots are requested through their election, their boards of election, and it is the responsibility of the states and the community that is running the election to validate and confirm that the person is receiving the ballot who has requested it. But thanks for asking.

MODERATOR: Okay, next question will go to Logan. Logan, please introduce yourself, your media outlet before your question. Thank you.

QUESTION: Yeah, cool. Hi. I’m Logan Church from Television New Zealand, based in New York. One of the issues for Western democracies right around the world has been around misinformation and disinformation around the election cycle, but it particularly seems to be the case ahead of this election in November. I’m curious – and perhaps a question for Brendan, as I’m also interested in this from a security perspective – how has the Postal Service been approaching this, and how much of a challenge has it been to deal with what can only be considered as rising levels of misinformation in the election space? Thank you.

MR DONAHUE: So I’m more than happy to take the question, and a few different points. So first, again, as it relates to election mail, I’ll just reiterate again that the Postal Inspection Service serves as the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service, which is unique in that the Postal Service here in the United States has a federal law enforcement and security arm. We work closely with our federal partners, as noted before, including the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Postal Inspection Service works really closely with the elections security community, including the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and its Intelligence Community partners on matters involving potential foreign malign influence affecting the Postal Service in the U.S. mail, including mail-in ballots.

And in general, just I’ll note, and specific to – in regards to specific foreign actors, I would refer to ODNI, to the Office of the Direction of National Intelligence Election Security Update, which was published yesterday and which is available online at dni.gov. But we work really closely with those partners, again, as it relates to foreign malign influence, which in some cases may involve misinformation or disinformation.

The message that I share consistently with the public is that local and state election officials are beacons here in the United States. They are the trusted voice, and we defer to the public to go to those beacons of information and to drown out the rest of the noise, that misinformation and disinformation, and rely upon those trusted voices. Again, here in the United States that’s those local/state election officials who are responsible for administering elections.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Inspector Donahue. We’ll turn to a pre-submitted question from Thanh Nguyen with Vietnam Television. He asks: “How do you secure the transport of ballots? Is there a difference between this mail and non-election-related mail? And who pays the fees for election mail?”

MR DONAHUE: So I’ll take the first part of that question. So the Postal Service has longstanding, trusted processes and procedures to securely handle the transport of mail. That includes election mail. The Postal Service has security measures in place, both those that are seen and unseen, which help ensure the security of its network and the mail, including ballots.

In addition, the Postal Inspection Service conducts election mail inspections, which I spoke about before, which are process and operational security measures which ensure that election mail, including ballots, are securely handled while it’s within the Postal Service’s network. As part of these, we review the physical security of election mail and the workplace. We also monitor for delays. And again, we report those findings to senior postal leadership so that – so that corrective action can be taken to mitigate any sort of concerns or issues that are identified.

The Postal Inspection Service also has election crimes coordinators who conduct outreach to local and state election officials on election security matters involving election mail. That helps ensure that election mail is also transported and handled securely. We also work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to help ensure the secure transport of election mail, including ballots, and we work with them to respond to security and criminal incidents when they occur.

And then the final thing that I want to note, and as I shared at the end of the brief that I gave, was that we share tips with the public on how to most securely mail election mail. And those are important tips that we encourage you to share as well with your readers or audience, as those tips help ensure that election mail is handled securely. And it – the delivery and handling of election mail really is a partnership between election officials, the Postal Service, and the customer, and everybody needs to do their part to help ensure the security of election mail.

MR MONTEITH: Yeah, and I’ll just add to, I think, the other part of the question that election mail runs with a regular mail flow, with the exception of the extraordinary measures that Adrienne talked about as we get closer to the election. We’re in that period now. There’s things we do to ensure that we give expedited handling, if you will, to the ballots to ensure that they reach their destination, that there’s things we do that are a little bit outside of process. And in terms of who pays for it, it’s the election jurisdictions pay for it from – when they mail out to the voters, and then the voters either – it’s either set up for the voters to pay for the ballot when it’s returned or there are a number of jurisdictions that have arranged to prepay, through what we call Business Reply Mail, for the return ballot. So that’s essentially how that’s set up.

MODERATOR: Thank you. A reminder for the journalists that are joining us on Zoom: Please raise your hand if you have a question or submit it via the chat if you’re not able to come online today. We’ll take another pre-submitted question: “What percentage of U.S. ballots are returning from foreign countries?”

MR MONTEITH: Yeah, so with that one, we really don’t have that information. The best place to get that type of information in terms of foreign-origin ballots is either through the Federal Voting Assistance Program that Adrienne talked about, the FVAP, the Election Assistance Commission, or you can get it from the state boards of election. They have an understanding of how many international ballots they send out and what percentage that would be of their total registered voters.

MODERATOR: Thank you. We’ll take another advanced question that was submitted by one of our journalists. Anna Leier from ARD Germany asks: “How are irregularities” – I think she means in election mail – “irregularities in election mail handled in different states? How high is the percentage of fraud in each state, and what type of fraud is this?”

MR DONAHUE: So I can start and take that question. So each state handles its response to irregularities differently, and each state has different processes in place to identify those irregularities. We take allegations, though, of election fraud involving election mail very seriously. The Postal Service – Postal Inspection Service works with its federal law enforcement partners, including, again, DOJ and FBI, to respond to investigate allegations of election fraud involving the U.S. mail. I also think it’s really important to note that we have not seen any evidence of widespread fraud involving election mail, including mail-in ballots, that would change the outcome of the election in this election cycle or in any prior election cycle.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Seeing no further questions, this ends the Q&A session or portion of our briefing today. I’d like to turn it over to our briefers for any final thoughts that they may like to share before we conclude.

MR MONTEITH: Well, I just want to say thank you to everyone for joining us. It’s been our pleasure to brief you on the Postal Service’s role in our election process, particularly in terms of how we handle and process ballots for voters who choose to vote by mail. And hopefully it was informative, and we appreciate you taking the time to join us.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I’d like to give a special thanks to you, our briefers, for your time today, and to our journalists who participated. Thank you again. This concludes today’s briefing. Take care.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.state.gov/briefings-foreign-press-centers/2024-elections-fpc/securing-election-mail-with-the-usps

Published and (C) by U.S. State Dept
Content appears here under this condition or license: Public Domain.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/usstate/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.