Virginia Democrats sue USPS for delays that threaten to ‘disenfranchise’ voters
The Virginia Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service (USPS) on Friday for allegedly failing to process and deliver election-related mail on time, contending the delays are “threatening to disenfranchise” thousands of voters ahead of next month’s contentious gubernatorial election.
The lawsuit argues that while problems are being observed throughout the commonwealth, the “significant delay in election mail” in Albemarle, Portsmouth and James City counties is “particularly egregious.”
The party is alleging that thousands of ballots delivered to postal facilities by general registrars in those counties are “still outstanding” and have yet to be scanned into USPS’s system.
The plaintiffs said these delays are causing uncertainty regarding whether ballots can be returned in time to be counted.
“Even if these voters do eventually receive their ballots before Election Day, the slowdowns promise that they will not have sufficient time to send them back with assurance that they will arrive in time to be counted,” the lawsuit reads.
“And even if a ballot reaches the appropriate election official before the receipt deadline, if the official identifies any issues with it that require remediation before it may be counted, the voters will have run out of time to rectify the problem,” the lawsuit adds.
The lawsuit — which names Frank Veal, the USPS South Atlantic division director, and Gerald Roane, the USPS Virginia district manager, as plaintiffs — comes less than two weeks before Virginians are scheduled to head to the polls and vote for the next governor of the commonwealth.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) is running to secure a second term as chief of the Old Dominion against Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin. The election is set for Nov. 2.
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Virginia Democrats sue USPS for delays that threaten to "disenfranchise" voters https://t.co/2hFSRsa6JG pic.twitter.com/7xdfyLO8aS
— The Hill (@thehill) October 24, 2021
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