Dallas County: USPS failed to postmark some voter registrations by deadline

Some Dallas County voters are in for a rude awakening when they go to vote after the U.S. Postal Service was too slow to deliver their applications.

The Dallas County elections administrator says about a 1,000 applications were rejected because they missed the deadline. The applications were dropped off at post offices across the county, but it appears many were postmarked more than a week later.

“This is coming from all over Dallas County, I’m seeing some from Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Mesquite,” said Toni Pippins-Poole, Dallas County Elections Administrator.

A letter from the Secretary of State says the applications were rejected because the postmark is past the Oct. 9 deadline. But Pippins-Poole noticed an unsettling trend — a 7 to 10-day difference from when the applications were dated to the postmark from this Coppell mail sorting center. She said there was apparently some kind of delay at the facility.

When asked what may have caused the issues, the U.S. Postal Service said it has taken “immediate steps to research and quickly resolve concerns” and they’re still looking into the situation. It said customers can hand the application to a clerk and ask for it to be postmarked, otherwise, that won’t happen until it gets to the Coppell facility.

Pippins-Poole says she’d like to see all voter applications postmarked at the location where they’re dropped off.

Until then, she’s got advice for those unexpectedly shut out at the polls.

“Go ahead and vote a provisional, then let us work on it,” Pippins-Poole said.

Anyone concerned about their voter application can call the elections office so their status can be checked out. In a few days, that information should also be available online.