Baltimore post office discovers 2020 mail-in ballots

More than two dozen Baltimore voters received their 2020 election ballots earlier this month after the U.S. Postal Service discovered a tray of undelivered mail nearly two years too late.

The Baltimore City Board of Elections is working to figure out why the ballots were delivered late. President Biden won the heavily-Democrat city by a landslide – about eight votes to every ballot cast for then-President Trump.

Mail-in ballots technically should be prioritized, but some southeast Baltimore homes received their 2020 ballots this month. 

"The Postal Service discovered a tray of undelivered mail in a Baltimore facility on Friday, Aug. 5," a USPS spokesperson told WMAR-TV.

The spokesperson also said the tray had what appeared to be 26 blank ballots from the Baltimore City Board of Elections to addresses with a Baltimore ZIP code and that they were delivered Aug. 6.

"We deeply regret the late delivery of these mail pieces," he also said.

Baltimore City Election Director Armstead Jones said: "It would’ve been nice if they could’ve contacted us, so the voters wouldn’t have been confused."

Jones, who worked as a part-time postal worker in college, said that while individual pieces of mail can be lost, "having a tray lost is a little different story."

Nick Frisone, a Baltimore resident who received his 2020 ballot this month, said he is unlikely to go back to mail-in voting. 

"If there’s another pandemic, I’ll get a hazmat suit and just go in-person," he said.

Maryland has experienced other issues in recent elections. The Frederick County Board of Elections decertified the state's 2022 primary election results in the county after finding a problem with vote totals earlier this month.