Contact: Michelle Toivonen
Director of Strategic Marketing
800-686-6666
MIDWEST DIRECT COMPLETES AND DELIVERS ALL VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOTS TO THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
CLEVELAND, October 20, 2020 – Midwest Direct has completed printing and delivering all vote-by-mail ballots to the U.S. Postal Service as of 10/19/20. Working with the County Boards of Election, and communicating with the Secretary of State’s office and the Postal Service, Midwest has processed and delivered an unprecedented one million vote-by-mail ballots and more than 1.4 million election day ballots in two states to the Postal Service over the past 14 days.
“We appreciate the work the Postal Service has done to make sure voters receive their ballots promptly", said Richard T. Gebbie, CEO, Midwest Direct. “Throughout the entire process, we have seen one- to two-day delivery to the voters in the counties we serve."
“We are up-to-date with all ballot orders as of yesterday and we anticipate timely fulfillment as we move through the rest of the vote-by-mail process, which will continue through Saturday, October 31, the last day of mailing."
“We are proud of our team’s efforts in processing this unprecedented number of ballots in the short time we had to complete them, and we thank them for their diligent efforts. We brought in extra staff, expanded hours and added equipment to meet the staggering volume of mail-in ballot requests for this election. In many cases, we processed three times the volume of requests the county board of elections anticipated.”
Gebbie also addressed allegations that Midwest held or produced only those ballots affiliated with one political party or another. “For the 10 years we’ve been producing ballots, Midwest has never held or prioritized ballot printing for any reason. This year, we processed every ballot without regard to party, geography or county, as we always do. Any suggestion that our personal political beliefs prompted us to slow down ballot production and distribution is absolutely false. Quite simply, we wouldn’t be in business if we conducted business that way. We know how important this election is to everyone in our country and we have kept our pledge to do everything our company can to make sure the mail-in ballot process proceeds expediently and with integrity.”
###
Download Full Statement As A PDF
Contact: Michelle Toivonen
Director of Strategic Marketing
800-686-6666
MIDWEST DIRECT CEO RICHARD T. GEBBIE ADDRESSES QUESTIONS REGARDING MAIL-IN BALLOTS
CLEVELAND, October 15, 2020 – As county boards of election throughout the country began to prepare for the 2020 election, they realized the demand for mail-in ballots would exceed the demand that occurred during the 2016 election. To meet that demand, sixteen counties in Ohio and two counties in Western Pennsylvania hired our firm to help expedite the ballot distribution process.
We have been working with the boards of elections in those counties since August to make sure the ballot distribution process would go as smoothly as possible. Anticipating that the volume of requests might be two times what it was in 2016, our company bought extra equipment, brought in extra staff and expanded hours to prepare to meet the demand.
It is fair to say today that no one – not the various boards of elections, not Ohio’s Secretary of State, not our company – anticipated the staggering volume of mail-in ballot requests that has actually occurred. One of our county’s, for instance, told us to expect 40,000 to 70,000 mail-in ballot requests. To date, we have processed 95,000 requests for that county alone. With another 14,000 ballots requested from the county this week. The estimates provided to us from the counties were not what ended up as the reality.
Despite this unparalleled volume, we are getting ballots into the hands of voters quickly and accurately. The Postal Service delivery standards are 5 to 7 days. However, utilizing our mail tracking software we are seeing up to 85 percent of the ballots we are processing are arriving in the hands of voters one to two days after they are shipped to the post office. Our staff is working sixteen hours every day to make sure everyone who wants a ballot in the counties we are serving gets one in time to cast their vote.
We have been in touch every day with Ohio’s Secretary of State since the mail-in balloting process started to make sure Secretary LaRose and his staff know the status of our work. We are in regular contact with our board of election clients to update them on the status of ballot mailings, including Allegheny and Lucas counties. We know how important this election is to everyone in our country and we pledge to do everything our company can to make sure the mail-in ballot process proceeds expediently.
###
Download Full Statement As A PDF
