Ruch, who is pursuing a medical scholarship program in Atlanta, will buy a plane ticket back to Ohio this weekend to vote in person, when her mail-in ballot was not delivered to her school address as usual.

`It’s frustrating,` said Ruch, who repeatedly called and emailed Ohio election officials to ask about his mail ballot but did not receive a satisfactory answer.

Election experts and many state secretaries and election officials say the biggest fears of the US Postal Service being overwhelmed by a large influx of mail-in ballots have not come to pass.

However, the process of mailing ballots to voters and then returning them to election officials on time remains inconsistent and has encountered some glitches as in Ruch’s case.

An American voter votes at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland on October 26.

The percentage of mail-in ballots delivered on time by the US Postal Service has improved this week, from 89% on October 27 to 97% on October 28.

J. Remy Green, an attorney representing 17 mail-in voters in a lawsuit in federal court in New York, said the US Postal Service has increased efficiency, but the above data shows that ballot delivery

`89% is pretty shocking. You know they’re ballots but you only sent 89% on time? It’s crazy,` Green said.

The question of whether mail ballots will be received in time to be counted is an issue of concern in this year’s election and the subject of ongoing debate in the Supreme Court this week.

Unresolved concerns about mail voting appear to have led to an increase in early and in-person voting.

Performance in 60 of the 67 U.S. postal areas remains well below what it was before cost-cutting measures were implemented in July. And in 10 areas, including key locations for

Cost-cutting measures introduced by US Postal Service (USPS) Director General Louis DeJoy in July were once warned by experts that they would cause a crisis by causing more service delays, amid the pandemic.

Postal service speeds have now improved compared to July, but are still lower than performance before Mr. DeJoy took over.

Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat and Michigan state secretary, said that replacing the USPS General Manager right before the election caused `uncertainty` and `chaos.`

She added that the state government has arranged many polling stations across cities, partly because of concerns about long delays in mail ballots.

USPS employees load packages onto delivery vehicles in McLean, Virginia.

To ease Democrats’ concerns, USPS General Manager DeJoy this week passed several measures to speed up ballot delivery.

Kristin Seaver, vice president of the USPS, acknowledged that mail delivery problems still occur in some areas of the US, but affirmed that the agency `is deploying every possible resource to ensure all

Stephanie Freeman, a 66-year-old voter in Dimondale, Michigan, said she had had problems with delayed postal services so she did not trust the USPS to do a good job of delivering mail-in ballots.

`I don’t believe that USPS people can do the job they are paid to do,` Ms. Freeman said.

With the official election day just days away, state and local officials are urging voters who have received ballots by mail to limit their mailings.

A long line of people waiting to vote early in Austin, Texas on October 13.

However, voters who have not yet received their ballots by mail, like Rachel Pickett, 37, a census taker in Earville, New York, said Mr. DeJoy’s pledges did not help them.

Pickett, who doesn’t own a car, has requested a mail ballot three times and has not received any ballots.

`There are a lot of people who can’t vote by mail and it’s definitely the postal service’s fault,` she said.

And Ruch, who had to wait patiently for a mail-in ballot, decided to vote in person on October 31 after flying more than 1,100 km to Detroit and then continuing to drive more than an hour to south Toledo.

`I don’t want to have to fly in the middle of a pandemic like this. I also don’t want to have to wait in line for hours amidst people to increase the risk of infection. But you have to do what you have to do to vote,` Ruch