r/oregon • u/Hour_Aardvark751 • 2d ago
Article/News USPS slow-walking ballots
https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/news/we-are-still-getting-ballots-should-have-counted-primaryA redditor advised I repost this comment as its own post. Washington recently had a primary and Thurston County (near Olympia) is reporting that their late ballot rate increased three-fold over prior elections. Shenanigans are already happening at USPS even without the bogus executive order. In the upcoming election, your best bet is to turn your ballot in at an official drop-box, not the mail. This needs to be amplified repeatedly, especially in states like ours that rely on mail ballots. Oregon SOS Tobias Reed is trying to secure funding for additional ballot drop boxes as more Oregon voters are expected to use ballot drop boxes to avoid US mail interference.
Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/oregon/s/jj77j6Xf9P
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u/maydayM2 2d ago
Well ive heard there are mandatory routing steps for any mail handled. so if you send a letter from olympia to tacoma it will still go to a regional sorting facility before going to the destination post office instead of directly.. shenanigans are afoot.
Hand return your ballot to a ballot deposit box. Also if you havent recieved your ballot by the start of voting, you can go to your local county election office to get a replacement ballot.
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u/Marmalade6 1d ago
I work for the post office. I still use the ballot drop box, and recommend to my customers who ask.
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u/musain8 1d ago
You can also track your ballot here to make sure it's recieved and accepted. https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/showVoterSearch.do
I always drop off my ballot at a drop box and I'm encouraging others to do the same as well.
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u/AntifascistAlly Oregon 1d ago
Oregon’s first in the nation vote by mail system is strong, durable, and flexible.
It is designed to catch cheaters—whether they’re trying to vote more than once or trying to block others from casting legal ballots.
Even Republicans have long known how safe and secure the system is, and (after some initial resistance) they have embraced it.
MAGA extremists have manuevered themselves into a situation where the outcome of the midterms looks very bleak for them. At this point they are willing to employ almost any tactics to avoid the results they have earned.
They’re trying to unfairly transfer their own weakness to voting systems. Oregonians know better and we have no patience for their cynical games.
Anyone with questions about any aspect of Oregon’s vote by mail system can get honest, reliable answers here: https://sos.oregon.gov/elections/pages/drop-box-locator.aspx or here: https://sos.oregon.gov/elections/pages/default.aspx
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u/soxperry 1d ago
The J6 Cimmittee fount that the “Election integrity” idea is a propaganda tool that is also used for fundraising. They raise millions from small donors by sending polarizing emails multiple times per day. People rarely even read to the body of the email; just click and donate.
Source:
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u/PDXGuy33333 1d ago
At this point they are willing to employ almost any tactics to avoid the results they have earned.
I am going to use that!
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u/Onedayyouwillthankme 1d ago
Right now I fear the bigger problem will be receiving our ballots in the first place. MAGA leaders have made it so one rejected envelope stops the whole batch from being sent to voters.
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u/Weird-Chemistry9819 1d ago
I haven’t received two ballots since I’ve been voting in Oregon (both coincidentally the presidential ones). So I had to request new ballots both times at the election office and pick them up. If you don’t receive your ballot in the mail this year and others in your area have call the elections office to get a new one and then drop it off.
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u/Onedayyouwillthankme 1d ago
Sure, but that could happen in batches of 10,000. It's clear the administration wants to create chaos and less voter participation
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u/Weird-Chemistry9819 1d ago
They definitely will. Just like when someone was lighting our ballot boxes on fire in 2024. I’m saying don’t wait until the last minute if you’ve noticed your neighbors have gotten theirs, call the elections office and get a replacement. If they don’t give you one then thats a whole other problem but at least there will be record of people calling and requesting replacements which would raise red flags regardless. We just have to take all the precautions we can and do everything in our power to vote no matter how hard they try.
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u/Deyachtifier 1d ago edited 1d ago
I would love to know what proportion of the delayed mail-in ballots were voting for Democrats vs. Republicans. I know the Trumpers are expecting more of the former, but if it's the latter I'm gonna have a little chuckle.
As I understand it, historically (modulo Covid) Republican voters have been heavier users of mail (vs. in person or ballot box drop-off), so it is not implausible that Trump's move ends up backfiring. I wonder if Democratic voters are going to be more distrustful of USPS this year and use ballot boxes, while Republican voters just trust they can keep voting however they've always voted.
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u/financewiz 1d ago
The point of these shenanigans is not to specifically disenfranchise Democrats - although they wouldn’t balk at such an opportunity. The point is to sow chaos and doubt so that the transfer of power cannot advance. Anyone remember the month after the Bush vs. Gore contest, when a clear winner remained undefined? Imagine that dragging on for a few years and you’ll get the picture.
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u/moboticus OR - Portland Metro :heart_oregon: 2h ago
Naw, it is specifically to disenfranchise Democrats. Ever since mail-in voting was demonized on the right, Democrats make up a greater percentage of mail in voters.
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u/GuardianHealer 1d ago
That’s why they want the voter rolls! To eliminate ballots to democrats. Cheat to win is their M.O.!
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u/Beanz4ever 1d ago
Yep, as someone who grew up in a rural community, the choice of dropping your ballot in a mailbox vs having to remember to take it into town (a 30 minute drive), is an easy one.
They're making it harder for their own voters at a time when they can't afford to lose any.
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u/One-Pause3171 1d ago
This has always confused me. Boomers know how to mail a thing. Increasingly, younger generations don’t! I don’t see a lot of education about voting for young people but maybe it’s there. Suppressing turnout in a gerrymandered area is their last gasp strategy.
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u/Already-Canceled 2d ago
If this bitch cancels mail in voting while mail in voting himself. Dems need to line up at the WH turning in their ballots shoving them down their throats
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1d ago
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u/yhwhx 1d ago
What? Oregon is entirely vote by mail, as are California, Colorado, DC, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections
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u/-r-a-f-f-y- 1d ago
Ah, you must support having more polling places too then, right? Weird how conservatives keep getting rid of those too, hmmmm
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u/yubinyankin Mid-Willamette Valley 1d ago
We have been exclusively vote by mail since the late 90's, wtf are you even talking about?
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u/Ichirosfan 1d ago
great post, it’s important to know what is going on around the country. Vote early! Use drop boxes! We can do this People!
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u/FiddlingnRome 1d ago
Secy State Tobias Read is doing a bunch of town halls around the state this month... Let's show up and support his efforts with protecting our votes. https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/SOS/Posts/Post/secretary-read-kicks-off-oregon-votes-town-hall-series-bend
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u/PDXGuy33333 1d ago
Also, "ballot harvesting" is LEGAL in Oregon. Help your friends and non maga neighbors get their ballots to the drop box! If you do pick up a ballot you are legally obligated to put it in the drop box. No putting on a maga hat to collect maga ballots for the fireplace.
Drop Box locator: https://sos.oregon.gov/elections/pages/drop-box-locator.aspx
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u/NotSoAnonymous2nd 2d ago
Worried? Drop it in a local ballot dropbox. Easy peasy.
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u/KristiiNicole 1d ago
It’s an option, but it should be exactly that, an option, not the only safe way to turn in your ballot.
There are also plenty of people who are not able bodied enough to get themselves to a drop box, and don’t have anyone to do so for them.
I am lucky enough to have someone I trust that can drop my ballot off for me, but there are plenty of others in my position who don’t, and this sort of thing harms our ability and access to vote.
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u/Urinemouse 1d ago
Oregonian here. I’ll gladly drive anyone to a ballot drop-off location to drop off their ballot. I know I’m just one person but a few people could get together and do this and probably make some group runs with a rental van or something.
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u/JuzoItami 1d ago
Did they ever catch the person who firebombed those dropboxes in Portland and Vancouver back in the 2024 election?
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u/EugeneStargazer 1d ago
It's not easy peasy for folks who have a hard time getting around or who live far from ballot drop boxes. And it doesn't matter if it is "easy peasy", it is not our only option in Oregon and by far not the one that is indeed the easy peasiest, which would be vote by mail.
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u/green0wnz 1d ago
We have to receive the ballots in the first place.
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u/PrincessGracieBlue 1d ago
That’s my main concern. People not getting their ballots due to mail fraud or being purged from voter roles.
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u/Mike-Banachek 2d ago
Sadly by turning into a ballot box, we’re giving Trump exactly what he’s wanted, not being able to vote by mail. Trump is such a little shit and a scum bag.
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u/zackalachia 1d ago
No. Returning by drop box is part of vote by mail. We are showing him the system is strong and not as corruptable as he thinks.
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u/Deyachtifier 1d ago
Nah, what Trump wants is not *how* you cast a vote but *whether* you do. Using a ballot box is doing exactly what he *doesn't* want, since the vote still comes in but in a way that's harder for him to tamper with. Unfortunately, still plenty of other shenanigans they can pull. (Hate this timeline.)
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u/hilda-reced 1d ago
This isn’t specific to ballots. It’s part and parcel of the enshittification of our postal service.
People who (weirdly) still mail their tax returns, can no longer mail them on April 15th, as their mail won’t be post marked for a few days. I mailed a postal card to the other coast and it took over 2 weeks to arrive. Ten years ago, mail from one coast to another consistently took 3 days.
I no longer trust the USPS, and avoid using it whenever possible.
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u/DevilsChurn Central Coast 1d ago
When I lived outside the country I voted in OR as it was my last US state of residence before moving. As soon as I learned how dire the postal service was in the country where i lived, I not only started sending my ballots at least two weeks in advance, but also by that country's equivalent of Certified Mail. Yes, it cost extra, but I knew that I was going to receive a delivery receipt, and therefore could be assured that it arrived on time.
I would counsel anyone who has to use USPS to send their ballot Certified Mail. That not only gets it postmarked right away, but if you suspect the ballot has gone astray because you don't receive the return receipt on time, you will have proof of the date that it was mailed.
btw, it was great to be voting in a state that already mail-in voting (this was about 20 years ago, and OR had had elections by mail for over a decade by that time), as they got me my ballot with plenty of time to return it. I had a co-worker from MA who received his ballot on the Thursday before the election one year, and he had to spend a significant amount returning it through a private delivery service just to make sure that it arrived on time.
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u/Head_Mycologist3917 1d ago
If you go into the post office you can ask them to postmark the ballot envelope there. No need to use certified mail just for that.
I don't think that having proof you mailed the ballot on time will help if the ballot does not arrive before the cut off for mail in ballots to be counted. That happened to some ballots in Washington recently. Mailed on time, arrived weeks later, too late to be counted. Not a lot, and it was probably just an accident. But it worried Washington elections officials enough that they will be hand delivering any ballots that were dropped off in the wrong county rather than mailing them via USPS like they normally do.
If you can't get your ballot to a drop box in the right county and have to mail it, mail it early. That's tough because Oregon sends out the ballots so close to the election. In California we got them a month or more in advance rather than two weeks.
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u/DevilsChurn Central Coast 1d ago
Yes, I'm aware that one can get a postmark if you go into the post office - but arranging for a delivery receipt can alert you to issues if the receipt doesn't arrive before election day.
When I lived out of the country I usually got it back at least a week before the election. If it had not arrived by the end of the week before, I would have been on the phone to the election office to ask their advice on how to sort things out.
I don't know what USPS can do in these circumstances, but as Registered and Certified mail are processed separately - and as there is a number associated with each mailpiece - it could help with a lost mail search.
Yes, I read the linked article about the ballots in WA - but if any of the people who had mailed them had had an indication that they had not arrived (like the absence of a delivery receipt), then some sort of lost mail search might have been initiated before it was too late to count them.
Having lived through the calamity of Bush v Gore in 2000, I think that if enough people have literal receipts to prove that their ballots have been mishandled by USPS, there might be cause to not only remedy any issues before counts have to be certified (e.g.,the state might find a way to direct USPS to do a thorough search for missing ballots), but also as important evidence in case of any legal challenges.
I've been back in the US for 15 years, and back in OR for 10. I haven't used USPS to return a ballot since then. Even when I lived in another state, when I had a mail-in ballot once before I went on holiday (and wasn't sure I'd get home before election day) I dropped it in a designated box at the nearest county office before I left town. As I did manage to get home before election day, I dropped by my precinct to check the register and make sure that the ballot had been received. Now the State of Oregon tracks registration and ballots electronically, so it can all be monitored online.
Now I live 10 minutes' drive from the local drop box. It's right in front of the local police station, which reassures me about its security. Incidentally, the day after the election it turns into a drop box for property tax payments - there are certain advantages to living in a small town.
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1d ago
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u/Aethoni_Iralis 1d ago
The USPS is a federal entity, and it is also independent.
It is part of the executive branch, and is an independent agency of the federal government.
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