Norfolk’s elections czar is urging absentee voters to prioritize their mail-in ballots.
“You don’t want to wait until a week before the election and then decide to put it in the mail,” said Stephanie Iles, the city’s director of elections and general registrar. “There is a possibility that we might not get it in time.”
The United States Postal Service has faced nationwide slow downs in the last few years due to strains from the pandemic and various operational cutbacks. Virginia was hit hard, as Richmond served as a guinea pig for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s new cost-cutting plan of consolidating individual processing centers into larger regional hubs. Local and state election officials are subsequently pushing absentee voters to request and return their mail-in ballots as soon as possible this year to avoid missing the deadline.
“I think we are all concerned about it,” Iles said.
Christine Lewis, Virginia Beach’s director of elections and general registrar, said she noted slower services during recent elections.