USPS hands mail-in ballots to El Paso County and Recorder’s Office

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- More than 430,000 ballots have been mailed to voters in El Paso County, and now the US Postal Service is working on delivering filled-out ballots to election centers.

Although the post office is now urging voters to use drop boxes, they will still do what they can this week to make sure anyone who has already mailed in their ballot has their vote counted.  

In the push to keep your ballot safe, County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman says there is a process to ensure our elections are accurate and safe.

Tuesday, three plastic tubs full of mail-in ballots were hand-delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to El Paso County election officials.

"Today we just added 16,000 pieces to our daily mail volume, which is just a small percentage of what we do every day," said Colorado Springs Postmaster JoLea Quintana.

In an effort to be transparent, election officials described the process of taking these ballots in.

First, they sign off to acknowledge they are taking responsibility for the ballots, then they place them safely into a bag and seal them. They say the seal is one of the most important parts, allowing them to verify the ballots haven't been opened before they get counted.

To make certain ballots are counted this week, Quintana says mail carriers are collecting mail on Sunday this week.

"We will be isolating those ballots Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to make sure they're in the hands of the county at 7 p.m. Tuesday," she said.

Nov. 3 is the last day to drop-off ballots in Colorado.