U.S. Rep. says Miami-Dade mail facility with past problems needs election eve review

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is asking the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General to review a Miami-Dade County postal service facility before Election Day, following reports in past election cycles of valid mail ballots that sat in the postal facility and were never counted.

Wasserman Schultz, who is currently running for re-election, sent a letter to USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb Hull on Thursday asking for access to the Royal Palm U.S. Postal Service Processing Facility in Opa-locka. For the second time in recent years, Wasserman Schultz was denied entry to the facility last week because of what Postal Service officials said was a policy of not allowing anyone on the ballot to access processing facilities 45 days before an election.

“Given these contradictions, the need for oversight of the Postal Service, and specifically at this facility, is very much necessary at this moment,” Wasserman Schultz said. “I write to you today requesting timely action, assistance, and collaboration to ensure every vote is counted in the 2022 midterm election.”

The Opa-locka facility, which processes mail ballots for elections in Broward County, has had a trend of problems in past election cycles. Notably, during the special primary election for Florida’s 20th Congressional District in November 2021, Broward County elections officials confirmed 287 ballots that were valid and postmarked before Election Day were never handed over to the Broward Elections Department and never counted.

That crowded primary race headed to a recount and was ultimately won by U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, with a margin of just five votes over Dale Holness.

Florida law allows mail ballots to be counted only if they are received by election departments no later than 7 p.m. on Election Night. While it’s common for ballots to be mailed late and go uncounted, Wasserman Schultz said some of the ballots in that district were postmarked almost two weeks before the election.

“That degree of delay is unacceptable and cannot be repeated,” she wrote in the letter.

In January 2022, Wasserman Schultz toured the facility with Broward County Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott and they said they spoke to officials at the facility about making improvements in communication and creating teams that would meet bi-weekly to monitor the facility’s mail processing.

“I am urging the OIG to conduct an immediate examination before Election Day, of the Royal Palm Postal Service Processing Facility to ensure that those reforms are implemented and that there are no delays in mail in ballot processing for this current election,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Put simply: how efficiently the Postal Service processes mail-in-ballots is vital to our democracy and our society.”

As of Thursday morning, 2.2 million mail votes have been cast and nearly 1.4 million people have voted early in the state, according to statistics from the Division of Elections. About 2.1 million requested mail ballots have not been returned.