Author Archive

Ryan McCarthy

Management

Pennsylvania’s Rejection of 372,000 Ballot Applications Bewilders Voters and Strains Election Staff

Most rejected applications were deemed duplicates because voters had unwittingly checked a request box during the primary. The administrative nightmare highlights the difficulty of ramping up mail-in voting on the fly.

  • By Ryan McCarthy, Derek Willis and Jonathan Lai, ProPublica
Management

Poorly Protected Postal Workers Are Catching COVID-19 by the Thousands. It’s One More Threat to Voting by Mail.

More than 50,000 workers have taken time off for virus-related reasons, slowing mail delivery. The Postal Service doesn’t test employees or check their temperatures, and its contact tracing is erratic.

  • By Maryam Jameel and Ryan McCarthy, ProPublica
Management

The Postal Service Is Steadily Getting Worse—Can It Handle a National Mail-In Election?

Postal delays and mistakes have marred primary voting, and after years of budget cuts and plant closures, mail delivery has slowed so much that ballot deadlines in many states are no longer realistic.

  • By Ryan McCarthy and Maryam Jameel, ProPublica