Postal Service touts improved delivery speed of ballots in 2022 elections
Jack Birle
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The Postal Service is touting its improved speed for getting mail-in ballots to election officials in the 2022 midterm elections.
Nearly all mailed ballots, 98.96%, for both the Nov. 8, 2022 election and the Georgia runoff were delivered to officials within three days — an improvement from 2020, where for the Georgia runoff, only 92.9% of ballots were delivered within three days and only 97.9% in the general election.
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“Once again, our entire Postal Service team has successfully delivered the nation’s ballots securely and on time,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement. “We take great pride in the role our organization plays in the vote-by-mail process. The American people can continue to feel confident in using the U.S. Mail to fulfill their democratic duty.”
The percentage of ballots delivered to election officials within a week was 99.93%, a 0.51% improvement from the 2021 Georgia runoff and a 0.04% improvement from the 2020 general election. Officials also say the average time for ballots to be delivered to voters was less than two days, an improvement from the average of 2.1 days in the 2020 general election and 3.4 days for the 2021 Georgia runoff.
At least 54.4 million ballots were sent to officials via the Postal Service during the 2022 general election, down from the 136 million ballots sent during the 2020 general election at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Vote-by-mail skyrocketed in popularity during the 2020 election, with many states making it easier to cast a ballot by mail and maintaining those changes for the 2022 election.
“These results speak for themselves. The Postal Service has performed at a very high level as it has done since the late 1800s. The entire team — from the postmaster general, to the senior leadership team, to the 655,000 men and women of the Postal Service — is dedicated to ensuring excellence when it comes to delivering our nation’s election mail for the American people. And we will continue to look for opportunities to improve operational effectiveness of this critical service in future elections,” Amber McReynolds, chairwoman of the USPS board of governors election mail committee, said in a statement.
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Officials promise to “continue to look for ways to improve upon the tremendous results” from the 2022 elections. Widespread vote-by-mail laws in various states are likely to remain in place for the 2024 election, which will feature a presidential election.
The 2022 midterm elections saw Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives and the Democrats gain a slim majority in the Senate. The tight majority the GOP gained in the House led to a contentious House speaker election, which went 15 rounds, ending with Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker.