The United States Postal Service pulled out all the stops to make sure ballots got to voters and election offices on time in the 2022 election and has been awarded a solid “A” in a new audit.
Postal workers handled a record 103 million ballots, and 97.3% were delivered on time, the highest in the last three elections.
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That is remarkable since the number of ballots in the mail has more than doubled since the 2018 national election.
But in working overtime to make sure there were few to no problems with the election mail, the Postal Service likely lost $23 million, according to the new audit from the Postal Service inspector general.
Postal Service executives approached the election with plans to give special treatment to ballots. They created a new office to watch over ballot deliveries, added more workers and overtime, betting that states and towns would send more through the mail, and handled ballots like first-class mail.
The result was that it was costly to the Postal Service. The audit, for example, said that in alerting election offices that it would give the ballots first class, one-to-five day service, which is far more expensive than cheaper “marketing” three-to-10 day mail service, the Postal Service lost out on millions.
But the Postal Service said that if it hadn’t offered better service for less, it is likely that states and towns would have mailed fewer ballots.
The audit also found a handful of compliance issues, but nothing that would have jeopardized any elections.
In its response to the audit, the Postal Service took a victory lap.
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“The Postal Service generally agrees with the findings of the audit, which concludes that the Postal Service successfully prioritized the timely processing and delivery of election mail during the 2022 election cycle,” said Adrienne Marshall, the director of election and government mail services.
“In 2022, the Postal Service continued to deliver for the American people by successfully handling mail-in ballots in a midterm congressional election,” she added. “On average, during the 2022 midterm election, we delivered ballots to and from voters in less than two days.”
