ATLANTA — Absentee ballot requests for the November presidential election are now open, with Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday urging voters who plan to cast a ballot this way to "get requests in early."
Sec. Raffensperger's message comes as metro Atlanta has dealt with mail delays for much of the year, since the February opening of the new Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto.
Absentee ballot requests can be made through a Secretary of State's Office portal here. Requests can be tracked using the Ballot Scout platform, which the Secretary of State's Office announced as a new partner for ballot tracking this month.
Local election offices can begin mailing out absentee ballots on Oct. 7, with early voting starting on Oct. 15.
"The Presidential election is coming up! Today is the first day to request your absentee ballot. With USPS delays, eligible Georgia voters who vote by mail should get requests in early - and it's easy to do. Go to My Voter Page: http://MVP.SOS.GA.GOV and make a plan to vote!" Sec. Raffensperger wrote on X.
The decline in on-time mail delivery service around Atlanta and north Georgia that followed the opening of the regional center -- which consolidated processing and distribution centers in Atlanta, Augusta, Macon and Duluth -- has been the subject of intense political scrutiny on both sides of the aisle. The delivery of election mail in what is now a hotly-contested battleground state has been a particular focus.
A U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General report issued earlier this month found a "lack of preparation for election processes" earlier this year, ahead of the presidential primaries.
The report highlighted how the Palmetto facility struggled with election mail earlier this year -- including a finding that the day before March 12 this year, trucks were waiting 20 hours at the facility. The report also included a seemingly frank admission from Atlanta management: "At the Atlanta RPDC, management stated the Election and Political Mail processes were not properly prioritized."
Data show there has been substantial improvement in First Class mail delivery since performance nosedived earlier in the year after the opening of the Palmetto facility. But in a visit to the facility on Friday, 11Alive's Liza Lucas saw trucks that had been lined up overnight.
One driver told 11Alive he was making his first trip to the facility, a trip that began at 12:45 a.m. and didn’t conclude until 7:45 a.m. On Friday, Lucas also reported a new issue with a facility sorter, which USPS recently acknowledged led to some recent package delays.
The audit report, however, focused on a lack of election mail preparedness, noting management "did not create separate staging areas throughout the facility to identify and isolate Election and Political Mail."
It additionally found the facility "did not have updated Election and Political Mail logs to document the receipt and processing of that mail" and that management "was non-compliant with their all-clear certification during the primary election. This indicated they did not verify that all operations were clear of Election Mail, including ballots, on the primary election day."
Regarding truck wait times, the report said that on March 11, the day before the presidential primary in Georgia, "we observed numerous trucks lined up to drop off their mail and packages at the Atlanta RPDC."
"Management at the RPDC stated the truck wait time was approximately 20 hours. We could not assess whether any of the trucks contained Election or Political Mail, creating a risk of delayed delivery," the report states.
The report's response from Postal Service executives noted that the audit in Atlanta took place just 17 days after the facility opened.
The report acknowledged that "The Postal Service also said significant improvements have been made over the past few months in Georgia."
The Postal Service executive response said election periods that have since followed in Georgia -- including the May primaries for local and state offices and June runoffs for those primaries -- went more smoothly.
"During the recent May and June Georgia elections, a cross-functional effort was deployed to coordinate all communication, logistics and mail processing activities," it stated.
In a statement on the audit, USPS said:
Regarding the recent report by the Office of the Inspector General, as you noted, the Postal Service’s response is included in the report. We have nothing further to offer on their findings.
The U.S. Postal Service is committed to the secure, timely delivery of the nation’s Election Mail. In 2024, just as we have in previous elections, we will deploy longstanding processes and procedures, as well as allocating additional resources, including, but not limited to, expanded processing procedures, extra transportation, extra delivery and collection trips, and overtime, to ensure that Election Mail reaches its intended destination in a timely manner.