The culprit spotted on 15th Ave (Image: Google Maps)
Just in time for what is shaping up to be a tense and challenging 2024 presidential election, a Capitol Hill mailbox along 15th Ave E has state officials asking questions about a key component in Washington’s all-mail election process — the United States Postal Service.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs says his office has asked what steps the USPS is taking “to prevent out-of-service mail collection boxes from being left in public spaces during Washington elections” after ballots were found uncollected inside the Capitol Hill mailbox.
In the November election, officials found 85 ballots that had not been collected from a USPS dropbox located near Kaiser Permanente’s Capitol Hill campus. USPS officials said the mailbox had been marked with “out of service” signs “multiple times” but the signage was “removed.” The box was to be be taken out of service and replaced, according to USPS.
While state law allowed King County Elections to check bar codes and signature dates to determine if the ballots had been filled-in on time, the incident has sparked concern about holes in the state’s all-mail voting system.
“This deeply unsettling and potentially disenfranchising situation requires immediate attention and improvement so it never happens again to Washington voters,” Hobbs said in a press release about his office’s scramble to sort out the problem.
The state passed its law making the switch to all-mail ballots in 2011 after decades of transition starting in the 1980s focused on increasing efficiency and turnout. It is a major convenience for voters but it hasn’t been the big win for participation that many had hoped for. This fall, District 3 turned in a tepid 46% turnout even with its key city council race on the ballot.
Expect Donald Trump, already a vocal critic of by-mail voting, to make the Capitol Hill mailbox a talking point as the race plays out in 2024.
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what did they do, put a sticky note on it? If the box is out of service, lock it!
Why is that box “out of service” while it is being replaced? There are apartment building nearby that depend on that mailbox for outgoing mail. Just keep it in service until you actually get around to replacing the thing.