No proof US Postal Service ‘recently changed the delivery method’ of ballots to hide fraud

In an election-focused group on Elon Musk’s X platform, a man made what he described as "bombshell" allegations about the U.S. Postal Service.  

"The United States Postal Service recently changed the delivery method of absentee mail-in ballots!" Peter Bernegger wrote in an Oct. 27 post. "They are hiding the evidence of absentee mail-in ballot fraud - by not allowing the evidence to be created in the first place."

In a nearly 400-word post, Bernegger accused the Postal Service of improperly directed post offices "to NOT send absentee mail-in ballots to central sort. But instead take them to the election clerks." He said that meant "no electronic ballot images are being created," which he argued amounted to intentionally hiding fraud. 

Bernegger, based in Wisconsin, has rejected the 2020 election’s results. Since 2020, he has filed numerous lawsuits against local election offices, accusing them of fraud while promoting his litigation and false election fraud claims online, The Guardian reported. The Wisconsin Elections Commission in 2022 fined Bernegger more than $2,400 for making frivolous election complaints. 

In February, Wisconsin prosecutors accused Bernegger of falsifying a subpoena for an election-related case, and he was charged with "simulating legal process," a felony. The criminal case against him continues. 

Bernegger shared his post to the "Election Integrity" Community that Musk’s Political Action Committee created on X. Since it was established Oct. 21, the group has amassed over 60,000 members, many of whom circulate inaccurate election narratives, including multiple claims we have fact-checked. 

We contacted Bernegger on X and by email through his organization, Election Watch, but received no response.

(Screenshot from X)

Bernegger’s post provided no evidence to support his claim. He included an image of a letter from the Postal Service that said the agency found no documents that would satisfy his Freedom of Information Act records request for "all the electronic images of all absentee mail-in ballots" sent by municipal and county clerks in Wisconsin from Sept. 17 to Oct. 14. He also attributed the alleged changes to Amber McReynolds, the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors’ vice chair and a President Joe Biden appointee. 

We searched using Google and the Nexis news archive, and found no credible reports or information supporting the claim that McReynolds advocated for mail ballots delivery changes in 2024. We also found no credible reports that the Postal Service had made changes to its procedures for mail ballots. 

U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Martha Johnson told PolitiFact that the Postal Service has not "recently changed the delivery method of absentee ballots" as the posts claim. The Postal Service has used the same procedures for previous general elections, she said. 

As it has in past election years, the Postal Service on Oct. 21 launched what it describes as "extraordinary measures" that Johnson said are "designed to accelerate the delivery of ballots mailed close to Election Day."

The measures include additional collections, extra deliveries, special sorting plans on processing equipment and a different way of handling mailed ballots, Johnson said.

"Under normal operations, any piece of mail, including an absentee ballot, is handled and postmarked at the processing facility closest to its originating post office and, depending on how far it is going, will be handled again at one or more processing facilities closer to its (destination) post office," Johnson said. 

Under the special election year process, however, mailed ballots addressed to a local or nearby election office "will bypass the processing operation and will instead be postmarked at the local unit and delivered to the election office," Johnson said. "This is consistent with our practice in previous general elections." 

The agency’s 2020 press release used the same "extraordinary measures" language. We also found a more detailed October 2020 memorandum that detailed similar provisions, including one authorizing local post offices to postmark and deliver ballots to boards of elections "rather than the ballots being placed into the automation flow." A September 2022 memo said the agency would employ the same "extraordinary measures" as it had in 2020. 

A mail-in official ballot for the 2024 general election in the United States is shown Oct. 8, 2024, in Pennsylvania. (AP)

Barbara Smith Warner, executive director of the National Vote at Home Institute, said the special procedures for ballots are "well known" and "regularly implemented" among Postal Service offices and personnel across the country. 

"The extraordinary measures process is established for every general election, and was not done out of the blue," she said. 

In 2024, the Postal Service’s "extraordinary measures" for election mail started earlier, but they "are the same or mostly the same" as the measures in 2020 and 2022, said Amy Cohen, who works closely with state election officials nationwide as executive director of the National Association of State Election Directors. 

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Cohen added that although the measures mean some ballots don’t go to processing facilities, "keeping election mail local helps it move faster through the system." 

If ballots bypass automated processing, the Postal Service may not generate electronic images of the ballot envelopes as it usually would as part of its informed delivery service, according to the agency’s website. Informed delivery is an opt-in Postal Service program that sends image previews of incoming Postal Service mail. Those images, however, "are only provided for letter-sized mailpieces that are processed through USPS's automated equipment," the Postal Service website says. 

But there’s no evidence that a lack of images signals fraud. 

Brenden Donahue, U.S. assistant postal inspector in charge at the United States Postal Inspection Service, told PolitiFact it does not threaten election security when digital images of ballot envelopes aren’t created. 

"The Postal Service utilizes a variety of robust measures, processes, and procedures to ensure the safe, secure, and timely delivery of our nation’s Election Mail, including ballots," Donahue said. "The capture of mail piece images are not one of those standard measures, processes, or procedures."

Experts told PolitiFact that the Postal Service works alongside election officials across the U.S. and has built on its experience and honed its processes over time. 

Michael Alvarez, political and computational social science at Caltech and co-director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, said he has recently enabled webinar conversations with numerous election officials who’ve discussed mail ballots and the Postal Service.

During those discussions, those election officials raised "no concerns" about "any changes in the USPS delivery of mail ballots," Alvarez said.

An X post said "the United States Postal Service recently changed the delivery method of absentee mail-in ballots" to hide "the evidence of absentee mail-in ballot fraud."

Close to Election Day, the Postal Service handles mailed ballots differently than other mail, but this procedure isn’t new. Election experts and a Postal Service spokesperson said that the agency has made similar changes to ensure prompt delivery of election mail in previous elections including in 2020 and 2022. 

A Postal Service spokesperson rebutted claims that the agency’s special measures for election mail signal fraud, saying that the measures intend to speed ballot mail delivery.

We rate these claims False.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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