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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Post Office Can easily handled the election.
Last edited Sun Aug 16, 2020, 11:37 AM - Edit history (1)
"..From a sheer numbers perspective, none of the experts I spoke with doubted that the Postal Service could handle a vote-by-mail election, even if every one of the nations more than 150 million registered voters stuck their ballot in a mailbox. As one noted to me, a presidential election might be a big deal, but in postal terms, its no Christmas. The Postal Service processes nearly 500 million pieces of mail every day, and it annually handles more than 3 billion pieces in the week before Christmas alone. I dont worry about their capacity, Amber McReynolds, the former director of elections in Denver, who now runs the National Vote at Home Institute, a mail-balloting advocacy group, told me.
People like McReynolds are instead preoccupied by the changes DeJoy introduced within weeks of taking over the agency, and the cautionary letters the Postal Service has sent to election administrators in certain states. According to a memo published by The Washington Post, whose authenticity was verified by the American Postal Workers Union, postal employees are now instructed to leave mail behind at the post office rather than make extra trips or wait for a delayed trucka directive that amounts to a sea change for men and women trained, in the words of one union official, that when the mail comes in, the mail goes out. The agency is also cutting back overtime, even though as many as 40,000 postal workers have been quarantined or out sick because of the coronavirus. The changes have already led to complaints about delayed deliveries across the country, and the potential effects on the collection and delivery of ballots in the days before the election is obvious..."
With less than two months before early voting begins in many states, the turmoil at the Postal Service has left Democrats in an awkward position. They are demanding money for the USPS in stimulus talks, even though they contend that the agency can handle the surge in voting by mail this year without more cash. (The agency isnt projected to run out of money until 2021.) Connolly told me the $25 billion would take away the argument that DeJoys cost-cutting moves are necessary.
More significantly, however, Democrats have urged voters for months to cast ballots by mail as a way to participate safely during the pandemic. Now theyre saying that Trump is sabotaging the Postal Servicequestioning whether the mail can still be trusted.
Can it? I asked Connolly. Yes, he replied. Its really important that we not fall into the Trump trap that you cant trust the Postal Service to handle your ballot. Thats a false narrative, he said. Theres no reason to believe that. There are complications because of what DeJoy is doing.
If there is a cause for optimism, Patrick noted that the solution to the Postal Service uncertainty is largely in voters hands. Because of the pandemic, most states now allow voters to request their ballots well in advance and send them in weeks before November 3. You dont want to wait, Patrick said. She added, with a laugh: Leave nothing to chance!
Keep in mind that statements coming from the Post Office are from Trump/Dejoy.
They want to create a cloud of suspicion over the election so that he can tie the reults up in the courts. (Not that they should be allowed to continue weakening it)
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/how-postal-service-preparing-election/615271/
Thekaspervote
(32,809 posts)Cetacea
(7,367 posts)I read today that employess found out about the mail boxes on Facebook...
enough
(13,265 posts)an election involving mail-in ballots will result in chaos. Trump said we may never know the true result.
Cetacea
(7,367 posts)Squinch
(51,058 posts)350 million people in the US, so fewer than 200 million voters.
So it is the case. Or it was before Donny Bodybags put goons in to run the Post Office into the ground.
Since that happened, I have decided to vote in person.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)and return ballots. Where possible, use special ballot boxes.
Also, believe majority of postal workers will do their jobs and make it work, and whistle loudly if someone tries to screw with election.
Fiendish Thingy
(15,686 posts)Cetacea
(7,367 posts)And it probably still is. However it can ill afford more of these changes.
LisaL
(44,974 posts)Cetacea
(7,367 posts)..while making harmful changes. A win win for Trump.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)they wait to request their ballots and they wait to fill it out and then they wait to send it in.
LisaL
(44,974 posts)I have updated it. Thanks
Cetacea
(7,367 posts)"People like McReynolds are instead preoccupied by the changes DeJoy introduced.."
I'm glad that everyone is finally waking up to the problem of Dejoy. I knew that is was going to happen when he was appointed. As usual, ahead of the times.
qwlauren35
(6,150 posts)It was published on the 6th, and I don't know when it was written. The lack of overtime and the stopping of mail sorters, had already happened. But the restructuring is new and the removal of post office boxes is new.
Cetacea
(7,367 posts)But thanks.