World Mail-in Ballot Printer in Ohio Took down Its Trump 2020 Flag as Delays Increase

A printing company whose owners are self-declared supporters of President Donald Trump and was tasked with meeting the huge increased demand to absentee voting, has been criticized for not delivering ballots to voters on time in the crucial battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

© DUSTIN FRANZ/Getty Images Absentee ballots are collected from voters at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland, Ohio on October 16, 2020 in this illustrative image. Cleveland-based Midwest Direct faces scrutiny for not getting tens of thousands of ballots to voters on time.

Cleveland-based Midwest Direct faces scrutiny for not getting tens of thousands of ballots to areas such as Lucas and Butler Counties in Ohio, and Allegheny County in Pennsylvania on time, The New York Times reported. The company has said it was working overtime to get the ballots to those who want them.

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Mail - in voting threatens to make the November election the “most inaccurate & fraudulent” in US history, so the nation may be better off simply postponing Sharing his ongoing concerns over mail - in voting, Trump raised the possibility of delaying the election “until people can properly, securely and

With mail - in voting set to grow due to the coronavirus, experts warn that the companies that print ballots could get overwhelmed. Ballot Printers Increase Capacity To Prepare For Mail Voting Surge.

"They overpromised and underdelivered," Diane Noonan, director of the Butler County Board of Elections, told the Times, adding, "was I happy with it? No, I was not."

Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken also took aim at Midwest Direct, telling WTVG-TV: "We had hoped vendors that were selected based on their merit would perform of their merit. This one hasn't done that."

NEW: A Cleveland company that agreed to print absentee ballots for dozens of counties in OH and PA is 10 days late in getting them to voters.

The company's owners are Trump supporters and flew a Trump flag at their HQ. https://t.co/tAsKXQlOJL

— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) October 16, 2020

Other problems have beset the company, with 28,000 voters in Allegheny County being sent wrong mail-in ballots because of a printing error. The company says it was a mapping error and the ballots have been corrected.

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Trump said that negotiations on additional coronavirus relief funding are at an impasse in part because Democrats want to give billions of dollars to support the U.S. Postal Service and mail - in voting efforts. "If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money, that means they can't have universal

" Trump has been saying mail - in ballots will bring fraud to the election but absentee ballots are legit. I laughed because if the campaign actually took information from other times they have reached out to me, they' d know I won't vote for Trump despite being a registered Republican."

The Times reported that Midwest Direct's owners were brothers Richard and James Gebbie, who were open about their support for the incumbent president. A "Trump 2020" flag was photographed in front of the company's headquarters earlier this year, although it is no longer there, the Times reported.

Richard Gebbie said in September that he did not have an opinion on Trump's false claims that voting by mail could lead to a fraudulent election outcome, but insisted that the ballots his company mailed met strict security standards.

There is no evidence Midwest Direct did anything improper with the ballots and election security experts say a vendor can not tamper with the integrity of absentee ballots which are printed without regard for the political leanings of voters, the Times reported.

Newsweek has contacted Midwest Direct for comment. In a statement on Thursday, it said that it had brought in extra equipment and staff to meet demand but counties had given lower estimates of the ballot numbers that were required.

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It took weeks for his absentee ballot to arrive — appearing in his mailbox just three days before the election on June 23. The flood of additional mail ballots in the primaries has also revealed another problem that could have enormous consequences for November: a sharp increase in ballot rejections.

Workers prep mail - in ballots to be scanned that were sent in ahead of 2020 election.

"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," the statement said.

It said that it was in regular contact with Ohio's secretary of state, and board of election clients such as Allegheny and Lucas counties. With mail tracking software, 85 percent of ballots it was processing were getting to voters within two days.

"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."

"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 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," the statement said.

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