165 absentee ballots arrived in mail a week after primary election, Michigan clerk says

City officials received dozens of absentee ballots in the mail almost a week after a primary election, a Michigan clerk said.

The incident comes amid a changing of the guard at the U.S. Postal Service — and new policies that could lead to a slowdown of mail processing — causing some to question the reliability of the agency come November.

Democrats in Congress are calling for increased funding for the postal service in the next coronavirus relief package ahead of the general election, something President Donald Trump has shown unwillingness to support, instead saying widespread mail-in voting will be “the greatest fraud in the history of elections.”

“Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said Thursday on Fox News. “But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.”

On Monday, Sterling Heights City Clerk Melanie Ryska said her office received 165 absentee ballots in the mail on Monday — nearly a week after the city’s Aug. 4 primary election, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Sterling Heights is located just north of Detroit.

Because the ballots showed up after the deadline — they would have needed to arrive at the clerk’s office by 8 p.m. on the day of the election — they can’t be counted, according to Michigan Secretary of State’s Office.

Ryska said her office typically receives a few late ballots, but not dozens.

“It’s not uncommon for us to receive 10 or 20 (late absentee ballots) here and there,” Ryska told Crain’s Detroit Business. “But just to get this number at this time is very unusual.”

The ballots were postmarked July 30 at “Metroplex,” which means they were most likely processed at the U.S. Postal Service’s facilities in either Detroit or Pontiac, Detroit Business reported.

In a statement to the Free Press, Elizabeth Najduch, strategic communications specialist for the postal service’s Detroit district, said, “We have reviewed postal records and our initial findings indicate that all Sterling Heights ballots were delivered on a timely basis to election officials.”

Ryska said members of her office went to the post office on the day of the election to ensure there were no ballots at the location, the Free Press reported. She added that the postmaster also made regular trips during the day to deliver ballots.

One Democratic primary for the Macomb County Commission was decided by a mere 87 votes and could have been affected by the 165 late ballots, Detroit Business reported.

Looking ahead to November, Ryska said she expects Sterling Heights to cast as many as 50,000 absentee ballots, according to the outlet.

What’s going on at USPS?

The coronavirus pandemic has threatened to deal a fatal blow to the U.S. Postal Service, causing the USPS to seek billions in aid from Congress, Vox reported.

New Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — appointed by members of the Postal Service Board of Governors, who were appointed by Trump — has also implemented policies aimed at cutting down operating costs, Vox reported. Among them, postal workers are barred from working overtime and fewer mail trucks are out making deliveries, according to the outlet. All these pieces are working together to cause delays in mail service, Vox reported.

After calls from Democrats to investigate these changes, DeJoy announced a major leadership restructuring Friday resulting in 23 reassigned or misplaced postal executives, including two top officials charged with overseeing USPS’ day-to-day operations, The Washington Post reported.

Critics fear these changes could make USPS more inefficient, potentially leading to delays in mail-in ballot deliveries come November, according to Fast Company.

Those concerned include Ronald Stroman, former deputy postmaster general of the United States Postal Service from 2011 to June of this year. He wrote that the ballot deadline should be extended so mail-in votes “postmarked on or before Election Day are counted if they arrive in election offices ... at least one week after Election Day.”

All the major swing states in the 2020 election, aside from North Carolina, have laws stating that ballots arriving after election day can’t be counted, even if they were sent on time, The Washington Post 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,” he wrote.