The Executive Order issued last March 31 has placed the Postal Service in an exceptional no-win situation. Generally, the instructions in that order mandated that the agency perform certain functions, and establish and enforce related processes, to block ineligible individuals from voting by mail. The USPS was also told to produce mailing standards for the envelopes used to send and return ballots by mail.
The ensuing actions by the Postal Service to comply with the Order have put it squarely in the crosshairs of groups either supporting or opposing the Order and what it requires.
Readers must take note that these comments are not about the substance of the Executive Order, nor do they take a side in the underlying allegations and arguments. Rather, they consider whether implementation of the infrastructure needed to execute the Order’s many requirements can be feasibly designed, tested, and installed before election day.
Mandates
One of the obligations placed on the Postal Service was the development of DMM standards for the design and markings on the envelopes sent by, and returned to, election officials.
Though a mailpiece design proposal may seem routine to commercial marketers and mail producers, its impact on the thousands of election districts – with varying levels of technical sophistication – is significant. Displaying an “Official Election Mail” marking and related logo might seem reasonable, but it would require some officials to replace existing envelope stock or revise printing requirements for production already underway. Similarly, adding a unique intelligent mail barcode to each outgoing piece may seem simple to commercial mailers, but for election officials lacking the data management technology to produce the necessary output files it could be an expensive or infeasible mandate.
Another, even more controversial element of the Order directs the Postal Service to work with state election officials to develop a “a list of voters eligible to vote in a Federal election in such State to whom the State intends to provide a mail-in or absentee ballot to be transmitted via the USPS.”
In turn, the USPS is to use that list to screen outbound ballot mailings to detect and exclude from delivery any pieces addressed to persons ineligible to vote in that jurisdiction.
All of this was to be presented in a proposed rule that the Postal Service had to issue within sixty days of the Order (the proposed rule was published in the June 2 issue of the Federal Register) and in a subsequent final rule to be effective within 120 days of the Order. After processing over 200,000 comments on the proposal, the USPS issued its final rule on August 26.
Practicalities
The final rule essentially represents how the Executive Order’s premise – prevention of election fraud – would be implemented. As would be expected, therefore, those who have challenged the Order in court also challenge the final rule and seek judicial action to block its implementation. (The stated effective date of the rule is October 4.)
Aside from the substance of the Order or the final rule, or the merits of any legal arguments being advanced, there’s the fundamental question of whether the USPS can develop the technical details needed to design, test, and install the data systems to manage use of an official list of eligible voters; to deploy it internally for use in blocking delivery of ballots mailed to ineligible voters; and to assure sufficient accuracy that ballots will not be delivered or blocked incorrectly.
Moreover, despite its stated efforts, it’s unclear whether the Postal Service has enough time to work with state election officials to develop the required lists and ensure their accuracy, and to work with election boards to ensure they produce ballot-related envelopes that comply with the final rule.
Last, it’s equally unclear if the USPS has the capability to identify and train all the employees who will have responsibilities under the final rule, such as to work with election officials on address lists or identify pieces addressed to ineligible persons.
Postal Service veterans in the relevant functional areas state quite confidently that, while the Order’s broad requirements may be met, many aspects of its implementation will have been developed without sufficient detail or testing.
None of this was the Postal Service’s idea, nor does it have an inherent business purpose for what the rule demands, yet, if anything causes doubts about the November election’s results, it will be the Postal Service that’ll likely get blamed.