In an election-focused group on Elon Musk’s X platform, a man made what he described as “bombshell” accusations about the United States Postal Service.

“The United States Postal Service recently changed the delivery method for mail-in ballots!” Peter Bernegger wrote in a post from October 27. “They are hiding evidence of absentee vote-by-mail fraud by not allowing the evidence to be created in the first place.”

In a nearly 400-word post, Bernegger alleged that the Postal Service incorrectly directed post offices “NOT to send absentee mail ballots to central sorting, but instead to take them to election clerks.” He said that meant “no images of electronic ballots are being created,” which he said was tantamount to intentionally concealing fraud.

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

In February, Wisconsin prosecutors accused Bernegger of falsifying a subpoena for an election-related case and was charged with “simulating legal proceedings,” a felony. The criminal case against him continue.

Bernegger shared his post with the “Electoral Integrity” community that Musk’s Political Action Committee created on X. Since its creation on October 21, the group has amassed more than 60,000 members, many of whom circulate inaccurate election narratives, included multiple claims we have verified the facts.

We contacted Bernegger at X and by email through his organization, Election surveillancebut received no response.

(Screenshot of X)

Bernegger’s post did not provide any evidence to support his claim. It included an image of a letter from the Postal Service that said the agency found no documents that satisfied its Freedom of Information Act records request for “all electronic images of all absentee mail-in ballots” submitted by city clerks. and county in Wisconsin. from September 17 to October 14. He also attributed the supposed changes to Amber McReynoldsvice chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Postal Service and appointed by President Joe Biden.

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

U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Martha Johnson told PolitiFact that the Postal Service has not “recently changed the method of delivering absentee ballots” as the posts claim. The Postal Service has used the same procedures in previous general elections, he said.

USPS ‘extraordinary measures’ for election mail are not new

As it has done in previous election years, the Postal Service on October 21 launched what is describes how “extraordinary measures” that Johnson said are “designed to speed up the delivery of mail-in ballots close to Election Day.”

The measures include additional pickups, additional deliveries, special processing equipment sorting plans and a different way of handling mail-in ballots, Johnson said.

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

However, under the special election year process, mail-in ballots addressed to a local or nearby election office “will bypass the processing operation and will instead be postmarked by the local unit and delivered to the office.” election,” Johnson said. “This is consistent with our practice in previous general elections.”

the agency press release 2020 used the same language of “extraordinary measures.” We also find a more detailed October 2020 Memo detailing similar provisions, including one that authorizes local post offices to stamp and deliver ballots to boards of elections “rather than having the ballots placed into the automation stream.” TO September 2022 The memo said the agency would employ the same “extraordinary measures” it had used in 2020.

An official mail-in ballot for the 2024 U.S. general election is shown in Pennsylvania on Oct. 8, 2024. (AP)

Barbara Smith Warner, executive director of the National Vote at Home Institute, said special ballot procedures are “well known” and “regularly implemented” among Postal Service offices and staff across the country.

“The process of extraordinary measures is established for each general election and was not done out of nowhere,” he said.

In 2024, the Postal Service’s “extraordinary measures” for election mail began earlier, but “they are the same or nearly the same” as the 2020 and 2022 measures, said Amy Cohen, who works closely with state election officials on the entire country as executive director. of the National Association of State Election Directors.

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

There may not be digital images of the election envelopes, but that does not equate to fraud

If ballots escape automated processing, the Postal Service may not generate electronic images of ballot envelopes as it normally would as part of its informed delivery service, according to the agency’s website. Informed Delivery is an optional Postal Service program that sends image previews of incoming Postal Service mail. However, those images are “only provided for letter-size mailings that are processed through USPS automated equipment.” the postal service website says.

But there is no evidence that the lack of images indicates fraud.

Brenden Donahue, deputy postal inspector in charge of the United States Postal Inspection Service, told PolitiFact that election security is not threatened when digital images of ballot envelopes are not created.

“The Postal Service uses a variety of robust measures, processes and procedures to ensure the secure and timely delivery of our nation’s election mail, including ballots,” Donahue said. “Capturing images of pieces of mail is not one of those standard measures, processes or procedures.”

Experts told PolitiFact that the Postal Service works alongside election officials across the United States and has leveraged their experience and refined its processes over time.

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

During those discussions, those election officials did not express “any concerns” about “any changes to USPS mail-in ballot delivery,” Alvarez said.

Our failure

A post from

Around Election Day, the Postal Service handles mail-in ballots differently than other mail, but this procedure is not new. Election experts and a Postal Service spokesperson said the agency has made similar changes to ensure quick delivery of election mail in previous elections, including in 2020 and 2022.

A Postal Service spokesperson refuted claims that the agency’s special measures for election mail indicate fraud, saying the measures are intended to speed up the delivery of election mail.

We rate these claims as false.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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