Lee County’s supervisor agrees with basic message of USPS election letter

The United States Postal Service is sending out a letter explaining how to complete a ballot, but a Colorado court ordered the agency to stop sending them after state officials felt it was sending out false statements.

WINK News spoke with Tommy Doyle, Lee County’s supervisor of elections, about the authenticity of the USPS mail going out to everyone in the country and what else people can expect in their mailboxes.

“It says give yourself and your election officials ample time to complete the process, and that’s very true,” Doyle said.

Doyle likes the postal service’s effort to make sure mail-in voting goes smoothly, but it’s not perfect.

Instead of directing people to the USPS website, Doyle wants registered voters to, “Go on our website, Lee.vote, and you can track your ballot when we receive it and if we counted it,” he said.

Doyle asks people not to wait until the deadline to ask for a mail-in ballot.

“I wouldn’t wait 15 days,” Doyle said. “I would request it now so you have that insurance policy.”

He said to mail it back 10 days before Election Day instead of the suggested seven days.

The state also has its own postcard hitting mailboxes. This one is going to 2.2 million unregistered voters.

“It’s an outreach program,” Doyle said. “They do across state line checks for duplication of people registering in two states, which is going to be really helpful, especially in Lee County where we have so many people that are here temporarily, back and forth.”

Monday marks 50 days until Election Day. It will also mark the first presidential election that Florida is sending outreach postcards.

Florida is one of 29 states in a program that crosschecks voter registration databases to identify voters registered in more than one state. They also work together to remove deceased voters.