Lancaster County: USPS conducted investigation on late mail-in ballots

• By Tom Lisi/ LNP | LancasterOnline

A United States Postal Service investigation has turned up no information about why 268 mail-in ballots took almost two weeks to arrive at the Lancaster County elections office, after the Nov. 7 general election deadline, a county commissioner said Tuesday.

All of the votes on those ballots went uncounted because they arrived late.

The Postal Service informed county officials last week that it would conduct an “in-depth review of the processing and delivery for mail-in ballots — ballots going to the voters, until they come back to the county board of elections this election cycle,” Commissioner Ray D’Agostino said, reading a statement during a commissioners work session.

The Postal Service review will happen in “real-time” in this year’s elections, D’Agostino said, “to ensure that they are effectively and efficiently handling mail-in ballots.” He also said the Postal Service is keeping Lancaster and other counties in the loop on their efforts.

“From interactions of late with the Postal Service, it appears they’re taking the matter seriously and desire to ensure that their process ultimately delivers voters’ ballots as expeditiously as possible,” D’Agostino said.

In public statements, the USPS acknowledged a problem with mail-in ballots occurred in Lancaster County last fall, but offered no additional information about the affected ballots, including that it was conducting an investigation.

“We have reviewed the processes involved and reached out to work with the board of elections,” said Mark Lawrence, a regional spokesman for USPS, in a Dec. 7 email to LNP | LancasterOnline. “We have nothing further to offer.”

Lawrence confirmed he received questions from LNP | LancasterOnline about D’Agostino’s comments on Tuesday, but did not comment by press time.

Mike Stevenson, president of the Pennsylvania Postal Workers Union, said he checked in with a local union leader based in Harrisburg about the issue, and was told the day the mail ballots were postmarked, Oct. 30, was a slow day for first-class mail, and no mail delays were reported in the postal service’s tracking system.

“Were they simply sent someplace else? Did they go out on the dock and go out on the wrong truck? Because that’s pretty much the only thing we can think of,” Stevenson said.

The count of 268 delayed mail-in ballots updates a previous total given by county officials in December. At the time, officials estimated the number of affected ballots at 100 to 150, though they had not counted them at that point.