  We study some aspects of perturbation theory in $N=1$ supersymmetric abelian
gauge theories with massive charged matter. In general gauges, infrared (IR)
divergences and nonlocal behavior arise in 1PI diagrams, associated with a
$1/k^4$ term in the propagator for the vector superfield. We examine this
structure in supersymmetric QED. The IR divergences are gauge-dependent and
must cancel in physical quantities like the electron pole mass. We demonstrate
that cancellation takes place in a nontrivial way, amounting to a
reorganization of the perturbative series from powers of $e^2$ to powers of
$e$. We also show how these complications are avoided in cases where a
Wilsonian effective action can be defined.
