Over the weekend, blue Postal Service mailboxes were being removed in cities across the country. This comes as voting by mail has been one of the biggest concerns leading up to the 2020 general election here in Texas.
The United States Postal Service released a statement saying in part, "The removal of mailboxes was part of standard procedure, but given the recent concerns across the country, all further removal of mailboxes has been postponed for 90 days until after the election."
In Brazos County, those who do receive their ballot by mail are told to still vote and mail their ballots in early.
“Do it early. Make your application early, as soon as you get that ballot put it back in the mail to us,” said Trudy Hancock, Brazos County Elections Administrator.
Brazos County is already seeing an increase of mail-in ballot applications, which means Election Day for those voters is really October 23.
“The deadline is 11 days before the election, but you don’t want to wait that late,” said Hancock.
Hancock is encouraging those eligible to apply for a mail-in ballot to do it as soon as possible.
“I'm already going ahead and asking people please fill out their applications and send those in now,” she said.
Now that the Postal Service is at the center of voting in 2020, Brazos County election officials are telling voters if they are sending ballots in by mail to allow at least ten days for their ballot to be received.
“Some things we saw during the election only took a couple of days but we did have some mail take as much as 30 days. So, I don’t foresee a problem except for the people who wait for the last minute,” Hancock said.
She says they are expecting a large turnout for the presidential election and the earlier you vote the better.
Early voting starts October 13 in Texas. Hancock wants to remind residents that straight-party has been removed from the ballot, which means voting will take longer than the primary and runoff elections earlier this year. For now, dropping your ballot in a Postal Service mailbox is still an option.