North Dakota candidate who narrowly lost election in November speaks out following release of documents

(Fargo, ND) -- A North Dakota Republican candidate who narrowly lost his re-election campaign last November says hundreds of campaign mailers were not delivered to homes before election day.

Candidate for Fargo's District 10, Curtis Olafson, says the mailers were scheduled to arrive at homes between October 31st and November 2nd. Olafson says Fargo Post Office Officials acknowledged the mailers arrived in Fargo on October 29th, but the 260 - 280 political fliers did not arrive at the local branch for home delivery until two days after the election. The former candidate is calling for clarity on what happened in the post office.

“It’s truly disappointing to know that a basic campaign strategy to reach hundreds of Republican voters was denied us,” said Olafson, “and it’s very puzzling that our mailing was broken up into batches. I trust that the Post Office will do a thorough investigation; it’s important to know what actually happened and why.”

The U.S. Postal Service released a statement to WDAY Radio at the time of the incident: "The U.S. mail serves as a secure, efficient, and effective means for citizens and campaigns to participate in the electoral process. We employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all political and campaign mail. Regarding the customer's (Curtis Olafson) political mailing, Postal Management researched to find that the candidate's political mailing was delivered promptly on arrival in Fargo."

In documents obtained by WDAY Radio regarding how the delay occurred, a customer relations manager from the U.S. postal service gave a possible explanation. 

• The mail shipment was delivered to Batesville, Indiana on October 29th.
• The mail was initially received as four "trays" and separated by corresponding zip codes. Three trays were already separated (two for 58104 and one for 58103), but the fourth tray contained a mix of documents from multiple Area Distribution Centers and a mix of zip codes.
• Three of the trays were shipped from Indiana shortly after entering the facility. The fourth "would have been opened and the pieces therein [sic] sorted locally with other mail and sent to Fargo through the mail stream from Indiana, which is a longer process."

Olafson says he would not have submitted a FOIA request or have gone public with the information had the U.S. Postal Service said some of the mailers were shipped to a different location and later sent to Fargo. He said he was particularly troubled by statements made by one spokesperson out of Washington D.C who was emailing local post office staff members, who requested assistance on responding to Olafson's additional requests for comment.

"Election Mail assumes all statements provided to customers end up in the media. We have a very strong policy that we do NOT [sic] say we are sorry, "wrote the spokesperson in an email. "We have NEVER [sic] done it in the three years I've been working with them. I suggest you stick with the statement above. Provide a few niceties, like 'Hello Mr. Olafson" and "Wishing you a good holiday season," but I would also skip that 'Let me know if I can be of further assistance' because the door on this issue is NOT [sic] open."

You can read our original reporting by clicking here.