Election officials in nearly half the states are warning the courts that implementing the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail ballot rule would cause significant turmoil in their plans for the midterm elections, with plenty of signs voters would lose their chance to vote.
In declarations filed in a lawsuit seeking to halt the ballot rule, the officials detail how the rule comes late in the process, squeezes deadlines for sending out ballots and clashes with long-standing state election laws and carefully timed procedures.
“It is currently less than a week from when we need to provide our mailing list to our print and mail vendor,” said Sarah Hanzas, the secretary of state in Vermont, where there is universal vote-by-mail. “My staff, the city and town clerks, and the vendor have not seen or been trained on the new USPS system. We are not alone in this lack of knowledge.”