Philly-Area Mail Delivery Slows Significantly Ahead Of Election

PHILADELPHIA — Mail delivery in the Philadelphia region has slowed considerably days ahead of an election in which thousands of voters are planning to cast ballots by mail, according to a court filing by the United States Postal Service.

The postal service provided data in a federal court filing that shows how much mail delivery has slowed around the nation.

In the Philadelphia metropolitan region, 42.95 percent of all first class mail is taking five days or more to be delivered. That figure was determined on Oct. 27.

On Monday, Oct. 26 the USPS said 61.18 percent of mail was taking five days or more, and on Saturday, Oct. 24 58.35 percent of mail was taking five days or more to be delivered.

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Election officials and leaders in Pennsylvania are urging residents not to place their ballots in the mail, and to instead hand-deliver their ballots to their local county's elections office or drop box.

Find a ballot drop box near you.

Some 3.02 million voters have requested mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, according to the Department of State. About 57.48 percent of them had been returned as of Tuesday morning, meaning that more than a million ballots are still in the mail or have not yet been mailed.

Back in August, eight mail processing machines at the Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center in Southwest Philadelphia were disassembled.

American Postal Workers Local 89 President Nick Casselli said the center is the largest mail processing center in the nation, serving the Philadelphia region as well as parts of New Jersey and Delaware.

Each machine can process 100,000 pieces of mail in eight hours, and the facility runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to Casselli.

Casselli said the issues seen among mail delivery began when Louis DeJoy took over as Postmaster General and instituted policies that were blamed for slowing down deliveries. However, DeJoy suspended the policies after changes drew intense scrutiny due to the possibility of mail delays during the election.

All eyes will be on Pennsylvania on Election Day. It's a critical swing state Donald Trump likely needs to win to be reelected. He has three events planned in the state on Saturday.