The Election Committee has received requests from both slates to regularly provide the number of returned ballots to the P.O Box. There is no means by which the Election Committee could provide an accurate number of ballots returned. First, the Election Committee, in retaining the P.O. Box, specifically contracted with the Post Office that no one, including the Election Committee, may access the P.O. Box until the morning of March 3, 2023. Accordingly, the Election Committee cannot view the contents of the P.O. Box to determine the number of returned ballots. Next, the “return to sender” for the Undelivered Ballots is the same P.O. Box as the returned ballots. Likewise, it is common for mail which is unrelated to the FOP Election to be co-mingled with the mail in the P.O. Box. Accordingly, there is no means to identify which, of all of the items in the P.O. Box, are actually returned ballots. Finally, with respect to the number of mail “bins,” there is no uniformity in the type or amount of mail placed in each bin and as such cannot provide an accurate number of returned ballots. Simply put, any number, if provided, would be an unreliable estimate.

Based upon the foregoing, the Election Committee has unanimously decided to follow the 2020 Election Committee and not provide any information related to the number of ballots returned until March 3, 2023 after the mail has been picked up and an number can be properly ascertained. The Election Committee believes to do otherwise would be irresponsible.

The 2023 Election Committee