U.S. Postal Service Went to Extraordinary Lengths to Deliver Ballots During Historic General Election Season

122 Million Ballots Processed and Delivered Amid Historic Political and Election Mail Volume; Extraordinary Measures Underway to Deliver Ballots Currently in Mail System

The U.S. Postal Service today released a new 2020 Post-Election Analysis that outlined the steps the agency took to deliver a historic number of ballots and Election Mail. Read the full report here: about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/USPS_PostElectionAnalysis_12_28_20.pdf.

“Throughout the 2020 election, the Postal Service faced unprecedented challenges, but the commitment of our 644,000 men and women to deliver the nation’s ballots securely and in a timely manner never wavered even in the face of the pandemic,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “We take great pride in the Postal Service’s performance which is thanks to our hard-working men and women who went to extraordinary lengths to fulfill our public service mission, meet the public’s high expectations and uphold the Postal Service’s promise to deliver the nation’s Election Mail securely and in a timely manner.”

With two runoff elections for the United States Senate in Georgia scheduled for January 5, 2021, the Postal Service remains laser-focused on fulfilling our essential role for the election officials and voters who use the mail as part of the voting process. This report will be supplemented following the completion of the Georgia run-off elections.

Key General Election Performance Statistics:

• 99.89 Percent of Ballots Delivered to Election Officials Within a Week. Overall, 99.89 percent of identified ballots mailed after September 4 were delivered within seven days, consistent with the Postal Service’s recommendation to voters. The overwhelming majority of ballots were delivered in far less time than that. Specifically, based on internal processing scores, 97.9 percent of ballots mailed from voters to election officials were delivered within three days, and 99.7 percent were delivered within five days.
• 1.6 Days Average Delivery Time for Ballots from Voters to Election Officials. While the average delivery time for First-Class Mail, the class of mail by which nearly all ballots from voters are mailed, was 2.5 days in October, ballots generally traveled even faster. On average, the Postal Service delivered ballots from election officials to voters in 2.1 days and ballots from voters to election officials in 1.6 days.
• 4.6 Billion Political and Election Mail Mailpieces. Total mail volume surpassed 4.6 billion mailpieces for both Political Mail and Election Mail tracked, representing a 114 percent increase above the 2016 election cycle.
• 135 Million Ballots Processed and Delivered. The Postal Service delivered at least 135 million ballots, including both blank ballots delivered from election officials to voters and completed ballots returning from voters to election officials.¹

¹ The total may greatly exceed 135 million, as the figure includes only those ballots that were properly identified as ballots using the correct electronic identifiers, and does not include many of the ballots that the Postal Service diverted from its processing network or otherwise handled outside of normal processes in an effort to accelerate delivery.