Remember last year when hundreds of conservatives started voicing concern about the massive amount of mail-in and absentee ballots to be used for the presidential election? Due to their unprecedented numbers and a mailing system altogether unequipped for those, we were worried that our ballots or the ballots of the millions of other Americans not willing to risk voting in person during a pandemic wouldn’t arrive in time to be counted. Or even to homes in time to be filled out before the election.
According to the political left, those worries were unneeded and possibly even an attempt to cheat the election. And to this day, they claim that 2020’s election was the safest we’ve had in our history because of all those mail-in ballots.
However, the same cannot be said of this year’s gubernatorial election in Virginia. Instead, those same people are now making the same claims we were exactly a year ago.
According to the Democratic Party of Virginia, hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots are being delayed by the slow-moving US postal service in the state. And if something doesn’t change, and soon, they claim the commonwealth voters, or at least some 300,000 of them, could be disenfranchised of their right to vote.
And they’ve grown so worried that an official lawsuit against the USPS has been filed.
As The Washington Times reports, the suit alleges, “Thousands of absentee ballots currently sit at post facilities throughout the Commonwealth unprocessed for weeks on end.” According to the case, Albemarle, Portsmouth, and James City counties all have “significant” delays going on, supposedly causing massive numbers of ballots to simply be collecting dust on some forgotten USPS shelf.
If this were true, there would indeed be a problem. In Virginia, absentee ballots must be postmarked on the day of or the day before the election, which is Tuesday, November 2. Furthermore, those same ballots must be received by the general registrar’s office by no later than noon on Friday, November 5.
If ballots were actually be delayed, as the Party says, it would be far too late for most of them to be mailed out to their respective voters, let alone filled out and returned on time.
There’s just one problem. The records of the Postal Service say no such delays have occurred or currently exist.
As the agency’s public relations spokeswoman Martha Johnson told the outlet, “We are not aware of any processing delays of any ballots within our facilities nor any ballot delivery delays, and we have fully communicated this information to election officials.”
Johnson added that their “Election Mail” policies, procedures, and processes were all “fully operational” and working as they should be. However, due to the recent concerns, the USPS has agreed to give daily updates to state and local election officials, as well as the lawyers of Virginia Democrats filling the suit, ensuring that no ballots have been misplaced or forgotten.
As Johnson says, “Daily sweeps” are being conducted and an “all clear” sign given in all of their facilities. And CNN confirms this to be true.
Of course, this wasn’t good enough for the state’s Democrats. Instead, they wanted the court to order the USPS to expedite delivery of all mail-in ballots so they could be delivered on time – no matter that the USPS says all of them are being mailed as scheduled in a timely manner.
So when Republicans have concerns about mail-in ballots and the voting process, as they did last year, those are apparently irrelevant and not worthy of anyone’s time. But when Democrats have those same worries, well, someone had better be listening…
Last year, they told us that mail-in ballots, in record numbers or not, wouldn’t affect the election at all. But this year, and for a gubernatorial race that will likely set a precedent for how 2022 will go, the same cannot be said.
Does anyone else find that odd?
So much for saying mail-in ballots are safe and guaranteed. So much for saying 2020 went off without a hitch. The left’s foolhardy claims in Virginia are proving just how hypocritical they are.
