A tray containing mail-in ballots for the 2020 general election that were never delivered was discovered in early August — of 2022 — at a Baltimore postal facility.

First, the good news: These were outgoing blank ballots, directed to voters who had requested them, rather than completed ballots/votes that never made it to their destination and thus were not counted. Additionally, the tray contained only 26 ballots.

Nevertheless, the discovery highlights some of the pitfalls of mail-in voting.  WMAR reports:

Mail-in ballots are supposed to be prioritized, but for a block of homes in Southeast Baltimore theirs came nearly two years after they were supposed to be delivered.

“I received my 2020 General Election ballot on August 6, 2022,” said Nick Frisone, who contacted WMAR-2 News after receiving his ballot. His neighbors in Highlandtown recently received theirs as well.

Frisone knew his ballot had gone missing. On September 29, 2020 an Informed Delivery email notified him that his ballot would be delivered that day.

“And then it just never came, so then I had to call the Board of Elections and then I had to go in-person to get a replacement,” said Frisone.

Thankfully, because of Informed Delivery, Frisone was aware of the issue and was able to remedy the situation. However, the experience has prompted him to reexamine his approach going forward:

A third of all votes in the Primary Election came from mail-in ballots proving many voters prefer this convenience. Frisone, however, said it’s not worth the risk or the wait.

“It’s supposed to be easy to vote this way, but when the post office misplaces them, we can’t,” said Frisone.

“Do you think you’ll ever go back to mail-in voting?” Sofastaii asked him.

“Probably not. I mean, if there’s another pandemic, I’ll get a hazmat suit and just go in-person,” Frisone responded.

Ideally, that’s the attitude most voters would/will adopt, despite the push in recent years — largely by the left — to move toward predominantly (if not exclusively) mail-in voting. Co-opting the US Postal Service as an integral part of the electoral process seems unwise, particularly given the issues the USPS has had of late.  (See, e.g., here, here, and here.)

In fact, this story isn’t the only issue that’s surfaced regarding election-related mailing issues.  Per The Federalist:

Two years ago, the USPS conducted an audit of election mail and found that some 68,000 pieces of election materials for the Baltimore mayor primary sat undelivered for five days before the June 2 election. This resulted in much of the campaign mail not being delivered until after most Marylanders had already cast their ballots by mail.

Incumbent Democratic Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young placed fifth in the primary. Young was seen as moderate and pro-business. Young raised the most money, but he was beaten by a progressive candidate who enjoyed substantial union support, Brandon Scott. Of the late mail, Young speculated, “That might the reason why I didn’t get a lot of votes.”

In what might have been a case of projection, two months later, Maryland Democrats accused the USPS under President Trump of deliberately slowing mail delivery to sabotage the November election. Notably, the president of Baltimore’s American Postal Workers Union promised, “Your mail will be delivered … you will get your vote counted.

As for this latest incident, USPS spokesman Tom Oulette responded to WMAR’s inquiry with the following e-mail:

“Regarding ballots seen in photographs from a customer’s email, the Postal Service discovered a tray of undelivered mail in a Baltimore facility on Friday, Aug. 5. The tray’s mail was from year 2020 and contained what appeared to be 26 blank ballots mailed from the Baltimore City Board of Election to addresses with a Baltimore ZIP Code. Those mailpieces were delivered Saturday, Aug. 6.

We deeply regret the late delivery of these mailpieces. The Postal Service takes these issues very seriously and is working to help avoid issues like this by going over our processes and procedures with all employees ahead of the general elections. The U.S. Postal Service is fully committed to the secure, timely delivery of the nation’s Election Mail. We are in close communication with the Baltimore City Election Board and look forward to a successful election in November.”

However, Baltimore City Election Director Armstead Jones indicated they learned of the issue from voters, rather than the USPS. Not terribly reassuring.