Voters in two counties in Washington state and Oregon have not received mail-in ballots with less than a week to go before the election, election officials said Wednesday. The news comes two days after incendiary devices were set off in ballot drop boxes in both those states. The U.
S. Postal Service failed to deliver an unknown number of ballots in Coos County, Oregon, and it didn't deliver up to 300 ballots in Whitman County, Washington, elections officials told The Associated Press. Both states conduct elections by mail.
In Coos County, a rural, coastal area in Oregon's southwest corner, the number of missing ballots wasn't clear because officials only know of a missing ballot if the voter tells them, Laura Kerns, a spokesperson for the Oregon Secretary of State’s office, said in an email Wednesday. Coos County has about 50,000 active voters. In Washington, up to 300 ballots have not been delivered in the community of Garfield, Whitman County Auditor Sandy Jamison said.
The town about is about 55 miles (88 kilometers) southeast of Spokane, in the eastern part of the state. There have also been some reports of missing ballots outside the town, Jamison said. Coos County Clerk Julie Brecke said in a statement that her office has been inundated with calls after the ballots didn’t arrive “as a result of an error at USPS.
” Officials with the postal service did not immediately return messages to The Associated Press on Wednesday. In Whitman County, Jamison has verified tha.