PULLMAN, WA – The U.S. Postal Service cannot confirm if they ever received hundreds of vote by mail ballots that never made it to Garfield last fall. The federal agency’s probe contradicts what a post office manager told Whitman County’s Auditor.
About 250 vote by mail ballots for Garfield residents for November’s general election were lost after being delivered to the U.S. Postal Service. Auditor Sandy Jamison oversees elections in Whitman County. Jamison announced last fall that an executive plant manager at the postal service sorting facility in Spokane confirmed to her that they did receive the Garfield ballots that eventually went missing. The federal agency told Jamison that they would investigate the missing ballots.
USPS Customer Relations Manager Janella Herron in Western Washington informed Jamison this week that their extensive investigation was completed. Herron says that they didn’t find conclusive evidence that the lost ballots were ever in possession of the postal service and officials don’t have any explanation as to what happened. Jamison says she spoke to her vendor and a post office manager in Spokane who both confirmed that the ballots did make it to the sorting facility. You can listen to her comments below.
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Jamison also notes she was told by Herron that the lost ballots would be investigated by the federal Office of the Inspector General. You can listen to those comments below.
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Jamison has now reached out to Eastern Washington Congressman Michael Baumgartner’s staff about the lack of answers from the postal service’s lost ballot investigation. Jamison asked the USPS if she could post Herron’s final investigation communication and her response at the Garfield Post Office. She was told that the public posting at the office is prohibited by law.
Jamison’s office was able to scramble just days before the November election to replace most of the lost ballots and get them to the effected Garfield voters.
Pullman Radio News has reached out to USPS spokespeople in Washington for further explanation. Those officials are working on a response for more information about the probe.
Herron’s message to Jamison noted that, “The Postal Service continues to exercise extraordinary measures for all elections in which we play a role.”