Talk:Postal voting in the United States

Addition to Expansion in 2020 election section

Hello editors, this is Jonathan from the USPS here with an edit request. I've gone ahead and added my COI disclosure to this page to follow proper Wikipedia guidelines before presenting content for non-COI editors to review.

Here, I've drafted an additional few sentences to the Expansion in 2020 election section. I believe these should be added because there is new reporting not reflected in the current version of the article, from notable outlets like NPR and the Associated Press, showing that the majority of mail-in ballots and registration materials in the 2020 election were delivered on time, as well as reporting that shows how many election-related materials the USPS handled during the election and how many ballots were ultimately delivered.

I've only used the absolute best sourcing I could find when putting this together to update the section, which can be read below:

Extended content

A March 2021 report from the Postal Service's inspector general found that the vast majority of mail-in ballots and registration materials in the 2020 election were delivered to the relevant authorities on time. The Postal Service handled approximately 135 million pieces of election-related mail between September 1st and November 3rd, delivering 97.9% of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89% of ballots within seven days. References

Thank you so much to any editor who takes the time to evaluate this request, I appreciate your time and knowledge. If there are any questions about this request, please let me know and I'll field them promptly. Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 14:20, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

My issue with this is that the report generated by the Postal Service's Inspector General had much more information to provide than the text that is proposed to be added to the article. For example, Noted in the inspector general's report was a late-September court order requiring the Postal Service to take such actions, although it said the Postal Service "has historically processed Election Mail in line with First‑Class Mail delivery standards as election day draws nearer." Other courts ordered the Postal Service to reverse or put on hold planned service reductions, including the removal of some sorting machines and blue mail boxes in some cities. The report says the Postal Service "leveraged high-cost efforts such as extra transportation and overtime to improve delivery performance." It found fault with communications about election mail process changes with local mail-handling managers, which it said risked delaying some election mail, and recommended the Postal Service issue clear guidance about those procedures in future elections. If we're to mention this report in the article, then a more comprehensive reading of its conclusions should be presented rather than the simple, two sentences offered in the proposal. Regards,  Spintendo  19:36, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

Hey, User:Spintendo! You make a good point about the IG report detailing the broader controversy that the Postal Service faced leading up to the 2020 election. Some of the details you've cited from the report (courts getting involved, USPS enacting measures that slowed mail delivery, fears that election mail might not arrive on time) are already in the second and third paragraphs under the Expansion in the 2020 election section. What I'm proposing above would be a conclusion to that third paragraph. It provides context that, though there was worry about election materials being delayed, the USPS did ultimately deliver a vast majority of election mail on time. It closes the loop, so to speak.

I know from previous experience that User:CX Zoom is familiar with this topic. If they would like to weigh in here, to create consensus around what we should do next, I'd appreciate it. (If not, no big deal.) And Spintendo, I obviously welcome your further input. Thanks! Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 17:50, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your input. You've stated Some of the details you've cited from the report (courts getting involved, USPS enacting measures that slowed mail delivery, fears that election mail might not arrive on time) are already in the second and third paragraphs under the Expansion in the 2020 election section. However, it's important to note that when you describe other text as a backup to your argument, it would be helpful if you included that text in your response using {{tq}} or any other such marking device. If the text already exists in the article, please provide it here on the talk page, taking care to ensure that any references backing up that text are also included on the talk page. Please reactivate the {{Edit COI}} template when ready to proceed. Regards,  Spintendo  21:29, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Here's the text of those two paragraphs, User: Spintendo. Again, these are the second and third paragraphs under the Expansion in 2020 election heading. I've highlighted in yellow the particularly relevant passages. As you can see, the article already covers 1.) slowed mail delivery due to USPS measures, 2.) court activity in response to those measures, and 3.) concerns both from within and without USPS that election mail might not arrive on time:

While members of Congress pushed to expand absentee voting and the CDC and other public health experts advised postal voting as a form of voting which minimizes in-person contact, President Donald Trump claimed that expansion of absentee voting would lead to "levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again." In May 2020, Trump began to claim that postal voting was highly vulnerable to fraud. Fact checkers say there is no evidence of substantial fraud associated with mail voting. In July 2020, Trump suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election based on his unsubstantiated claims about extensive postal voting fraud. The new, Trump-appointed administration of the United States Postal Service made changes which resulted in slower delivery of mail. Donald Trump openly stated that he opposes funding USPS because of mail-in voting. In September 2020, a federal judge issued an injunction against the recent USPS actions, ruling that Trump and DeJoy were "involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service", adding that the 14 states requesting the injunction "demonstrated that this attack on the Postal Service is likely to irreparably harm the states' ability to administer the 2020 general election".

The USPS warned that it could not guarantee that all ballots cast by mail in the 2020 election would arrive in time to be counted. For this reason, election experts advocated that postal ballots be mailed weeks in advance of election day.

Just to be totally clear: what I'm proposing would, if approved, be added right after the sentence that starts "For this reason, election experts…" I believe it closes the loop. There were well-founded concerns in 2020 that election mail might not arrive on time, but after the dust settled, USPS was found to have delivered a vast majority of registration materials and ballots. Let me know what you think! Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 23:02, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for providing those statements. I would suggest that the newer proposed statement be attached to the previously existing statements in order for the information to be more coherent to the reader. I look forward to your new proposal incorporating this suggestion. Regards,  Spintendo  20:26, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

User:Spintendo: Sure. Check the dropdown below:

Extended content

While members of Congress pushed to expand absentee voting and the CDC and other public health experts advised postal voting as a form of voting which minimizes in-person contact, President Donald Trump claimed that expansion of absentee voting would lead to "levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again." In May 2020, Trump began to claim that postal voting was highly vulnerable to fraud. Fact checkers say there is no evidence of substantial fraud associated with mail voting. In July 2020, Trump suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election based on his unsubstantiated claims about extensive postal voting fraud. The new, Trump-appointed administration of the United States Postal Service made changes which resulted in slower delivery of mail. Donald Trump openly stated that he opposes funding USPS because of mail-in voting. In September 2020, a federal judge issued an injunction against the recent USPS actions, ruling that Trump and DeJoy were "involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service", adding that the 14 states requesting the injunction "demonstrated that this attack on the Postal Service is likely to irreparably harm the states' ability to administer the 2020 general election". The USPS warned that it could not guarantee that all ballots cast by mail in the 2020 election would arrive in time to be counted. For this reason, election experts advocated that postal ballots be mailed weeks in advance of election day. A March 2021 report from the Postal Service's inspector general found that the vast majority of mail-in ballots and registration materials in the 2020 election were delivered to the relevant authorities on time. The Postal Service handled approximately 135 million pieces of election-related mail between September 1st and November 3rd, delivering 97.9% of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89% of ballots within seven days. References

I've kept the existing content in the {{tq}} style as well as the yellow highlights that emphasize the passages I referred to above. You can see the new text highlighted in green. Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 16:04, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for providing the requested information, it's much appreciated. Now that this moved information makes your proposed addition more coherent, I see only one remaining obstacle to its implementation. If you could now supply the paragraphs where the moved information would need to be deleted. I suggest you provide that text below using red text. Regards,  Spintendo  20:05, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

Notes

User:Spintendo: All of the information in the dropdown above (apart from my proposed new sentences) is already in the Expansion in 2020 election section. Nothing is moved here from elsewhere in the article, this is all the current section text, to which I'm proposing adding those new sentences at the end. So, no deletions elsewhere in the article are needed and the only edit needed to implement my request should be to add the sentences in green at the end of that section. Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 00:31, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Reply 22-SEP-2023

  Edit request declined  

1. A ref name used with your request, ref name=factcheck, is already in use in the article using different referenced information. Inclusion of this ref name invokes the Duplicate Key Reference Error. Please correct this error in your formatting.
2. Please note that prior text entered in the Edit request proposal should not be retro-actively altered. Instead, a new reply post supplying the needed information should be posted below this review. The original {{Edit COI}} template may then be altered.

Regards,  Spintendo  19:14, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Hm, I'm not sure why that should be happening. The ref name=factcheck reference looks like it's used in the current content of the section but not in the two new sentences I'm proposing to be added. Again, I'm not seeking any other changes to that section, just the addition of two new sentences to the end of the third paragraph in the Expansion in 2020 election section. To make it easier to just grab the new proposed content, here are those two sentences and their new references:

A March 2021 report from the Postal Service's inspector general found that the vast majority of mail-in ballots and registration materials in the 2020 election were delivered to the relevant authorities on time. The Postal Service handled approximately 135 million pieces of election-related mail between September 1st and November 3rd, delivering 97.9% of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89% of ballots within seven days.

Hopefully this clears things up and makes it easier to make that update now. Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 20:31, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your question. In the article now, there is a ref name titled "factcheck". There is also a ref name in your request titled "factcheck". These two references need to be matched identically, or else an error message is generated. As of now, these two references do not match. They either need to be matched identically, or you need to change the ref name. As Wikipedia is a volunteer project, edit requests such as yours are generally expected to have these formatting errors corrected before the request is submitted for review. Please correct this error before reactivating the request template. Regards,  Spintendo  21:48, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Appreciate the explanation. If I understand, you're taking the full text I provided above in my post from Sept 18 and pasting the whole thing over the top of the existing second and third paragraphs (of the Expansion in 2020 section)? If so, then it looks like there's an extra space in the "factcheck" citation that's causing that issue. Apologies about that.

To be clear, though, when I provided the drafted section content and references, it was simply to demonstrate where the new text would go. I didn't realize you'd be pasting the whole thing into the article. I thought you'd just be adding in the two new sentences with their references, hence my confusion above. To make sure we're definitely on the same page, below I've provided 1) just the two new sentences to be added and their references, 2) the two paragraphs that are part of the existing section with my proposed two-sentence addition incorporated (this time without highlighting and with that "factcheck" reference in the existing text fixed).

First, here's the code for my proposal, so you can see the two sentences and three new references I'm requesting be added to the existing section's content:

A March 2021 report from the Postal Service's inspector general found that the vast majority of mail-in ballots and registration materials in the 2020 election were delivered to the relevant authorities on time.<ref name=NPR21>{{cite news |last=Naylor |first=Brian |date=March 9, 2021 |title=Postal Service Delivered Vast Majority Of Mail Ballots On Time, Report Finds |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/03/09/975198962/postal-service-delivered-vast-majority-of-mail-ballots-on-time-report-finds |work=National Public Radio |access-date=December 5, 2022}}</ref><ref name=USPS21>{{cite web |url=https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2021/20-318-R21.pdf |title=Service Performance of Election and Political Mail During the November 2020 General Election |date=March 5, 2021 |website=USPS Office of Inspector General |access-date=December 5, 2022}}</ref> The Postal Service handled approximately 135 million pieces of election-related mail between September 1st and November 3rd, delivering 97.9% of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89% of ballots within seven days.<ref name=NPR21/><ref name=AP22>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=July 28, 2022 |title=New USPS election division will oversee mail-in ballots |url=https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-united-states-presidential-election-2020-294f320df8a6ff9451888ae2778b1a06 |work=Associated Press |access-date=December 5, 2022}}</ref>

Second, here's the proposal added to the second and third paragraphs of the Expansion in 2020 election section and I believe I've fixed the issue in the "factcheck" citation:

Extended content

While members of Congress pushed to expand absentee voting and the CDC and other public health experts advised postal voting as a form of voting which minimizes in-person contact, President Donald Trump claimed that expansion of absentee voting would lead to "levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again." In May 2020, Trump began to claim that postal voting was highly vulnerable to fraud. Fact checkers say there is no evidence of substantial fraud associated with mail voting. In July 2020, Trump suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election based on his unsubstantiated claims about extensive postal voting fraud. The new, Trump-appointed administration of the United States Postal Service made changes which resulted in slower delivery of mail. Donald Trump openly stated that he opposes funding USPS because of mail-in voting. In September 2020, a federal judge issued an injunction against the recent USPS actions, ruling that Trump and DeJoy were "involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service", adding that the 14 states requesting the injunction "demonstrated that this attack on the Postal Service is likely to irreparably harm the states' ability to administer the 2020 general election". The USPS warned that it could not guarantee that all ballots cast by mail in the 2020 election would arrive in time to be counted. For this reason, election experts advocated that postal ballots be mailed weeks in advance of election day. A March 2021 report from the Postal Service's inspector general found that the vast majority of mail-in ballots and registration materials in the 2020 election were delivered to the relevant authorities on time. The Postal Service handled approximately 135 million pieces of election-related mail between September 1st and November 3rd, delivering 97.9% of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89% of ballots within seven days. References

Thanks for your thorough attention to this. Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 21:40, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

The Berman source, which you gave the ref name ":0", generated another Duplicate Key Reference Error message. For the sake of expediency, I have corrected the error for you. As I have previously stated, Wikipedia is a volunteer project, and these types types of formatting corrections to your edit requests should not be expected to be made for you in the future. Regards,  Spintendo  01:46, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you kindly for implementing the changes. I do apologize for the reference error and will try to be more careful in the future.

Also, I noticed the fourth paragraph in the Expansion in 2020 election section that reads, "The USPS warned that it could not guarantee that all ballots cast by mail in the 2020 election would arrive in time to be counted. For this reason, election experts advocated that postal ballots be mailed weeks in advance of election day." duplicates the text from the start of the previous paragraph. If you, or another editor who feels so inclined, could remove this duplicate paragraph, I would genuinely appreciate it. Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 22:34, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

New York. "no-excuse absentee voting beginning in 2024."

Democracy Maps. Availability of No-Excuse Absentee Voting. MAP (Movement Advancement Project). Note asterisk on map next to NY. Below map it says: "Note: New York has enacted legislation to allow no-excuse absentee voting beginning in 2024. Our map will be updated once the law takes effect." --Timeshifter (talk) 22:25, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

Table for permanent absentee voting lists

Table for permanent absentee voting lists has been added to the article. See: User:Timeshifter/Sandbox231. --Timeshifter (talk) 07:22, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Added section on pre-processing mail-in ballots

Also two charts with the various state laws. I'd appreciate your eyes on it, thanks. Gowser (talk) 15:49, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

2024 election data edit request

Hi editors, I'd like to reintroduce myself quickly for those who don't know, since this is my first time active on this page in quite a bit: I'm Jonathan, and I work for the USPS. I've disclosed my COI on my user page here: [[]User:Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service]].

This edit request seeks to add data about the recent 2024 US Presidential election that has yet to be implemented into the article. Specifically, the short draft below adds the following:

• Cited Reuters to state that the USPS delivered 99.2 million ballots to and from voters in November for the 2024 US Presidential election.
• Cited the same piece to note that 99.88% of ballots to election officials no more than a week after they were mailed, and another sentence about how the USPS delivered 3.37 billion pieces of political and election mail in 2024.

Please read below:

2024 election data draft
During the 2024 United States presidential election, the USPS delivered 99.2 million ballots to and from voters in November. The USPS reported that it delivered 99.88% of ballots to election officials no more than a week after they were mailed. 3.37 billion pieces of political and election-related mail were delivered by the USPS in 2024. References

As far as where this passage would be implemented, ideally, it could be added to the end of the Expansion in 2020 election section, or in its own subsection specifically about the 2024 election. However, I will defer to non-COI editors on that front.

Editors, please let me know if you have any questions about the draft, and I'll be ready to respond. Thank you! Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 16:19, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

 Not Done. Request is obviously with the sole purpose of promoting USPS. Please refrain from making future requests of this nature. Axad12 (talk) 20:45, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for taking the time to evaluate the request User:Axad12. My intent was not to promote the USPS through this request; your feedback prompted me to reread it and consider how the proposed content could appear promotional. My intention was to add newly reported statistics about the 2024 elections into the article as a comparison with 2020 and update given the continued high public and media focus on postal voting in the US. I’ve reworked the drafted text to remove mention of the USPS in the first sentence and add a sentence citing the same Reuters source, noting election officials’ concerns about the delivery of ballots heading into the 2024 election, to provide some context and balance. I also removed the final line, as that is, on reflection, more about general election-related mail and perhaps too broad to include here.

During the 2024 United States presidential election, 99.2 million ballots were delivered to and from voters in November. In September 2024, roughly 36 election officials raised concerns about the USPS's ability to deliver millions of ballots during the upcoming election, citing processing facility operations, front-line training deficiencies, and lost or delayed election mail. The USPS reported that 99.88% of ballots were delivered to election officials no more than a week after they were mailed.

Please let me know if this new draft improves on the first one. Jonathan with U.S. Postal Service (talk) 22:44, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Jonathan, this is still blatant promotional material. Please just stop engaging in promotional activity. Wikipedia is not a platform for you to promote USPS. If you cannot see how the request is promotional, presumably you have had too much of the marketing Kool-Aid. Axad12 (talk) 04:37, 13 December 2024 (UTC)