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Official: Get Missouri mail-in votes in week before election

(AP) A U.S. Postal Service official is warning Missourians to send in their mail-in ballots at least a week before the election to ensure they’ll be counted. Postal Service official Thomas Marshall told Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft that the service might not be able to return all mail-in ballots to election officials by Nov. 3. Missouri requires mail ballots to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day for them to be counted. Marshall says Missouri should encourage voters to mail ballots no later than Oct. 27. Election authorities expect a big increase in mail-in ballots this year because of coronavirus concerns.

A major union representing U.S. postal workers has endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, a move that comes as President Donald Trump has acknowledged starving the postal service of money in order to make it more difficult to vote by mail in November’s election.

The National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents 300,000 current and retired workers, said Thursday that Trump has long been hostile to the Post Office. His administration has called for an end to collective bargaining rights, proposed service cuts, and has eyed the possibility of privatizing the functions of the agency.

Trump has repeatedly railed against the suggestion that more people should vote by mail as a result of the pandemic, which he argues will lead to widespread voter fraud. While Trump casts his own ballot by mail, the post office has increasingly been in his cross-hairs as Democrats advocate voting by mail.

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