There’s a presidential election coming up. Millions of Americans will depend on absentee and mail-in ballots to cast their votes for president, senators, representatives, and a slew of state and local offices.
The role of the U.S. Postal Service in the 2020 election will be more important than ever as many Americans will prefer to cast their ballot by mail in these coronavirus times.
Yet postal service leaders plan implementing intentional delays in mail delivery and processing — some of which are already under way. This simply cannot happen. Not now, before a crucial national election. How the postal service can even think about those changes now is beyond comprehension. It is clear changes need to come to the postal service, but not these changes and not now.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) already has expressed concern about the proposals. The postal service, Miss Kaptur said, will play an integral role in the election.
The delays have already started and mail is being slowed by a day or more in many areas — mail delivery has been a problem in Toledo and Lucas County since the local mail-processing operation was closed a decade ago.
Many of those casting their votes by mail will be older people and those with health conditions that put them at risk for coronavirus.
Beyond the issue of the election, much of middle America, and certainly older people, continue to rely on the post office and regular mail delivery for medicines, packages, cards, and yes, letters. Cuts and delays in service disproportionately impact regular working people, the retired and minority communities. Many people don’t want to do all their communication online.
For the long term, delays in mail should be among the last measures chosen to save money. The crucial issue is the upcoming election.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy must reverse course. Making sure people can exercise their right to vote in difficult times takes precedence over saving the postal service money.
This is made more important because some states, and courts in some states, have provisions that require the ballots to be at election offices by the end of Election Day — disallowing ballots postmarked on Election Day.
Properly funding the postal system and retooling it to run effectively and in a financially sound manner doesn’t require a quick fix — it requires a carefully thought out plan in which all stakeholders have the chance to make proposals for a more efficient operation.
The November presidential election is not the time for an experiment with delayed mail delivery.
First Published July 26, 2020, 4:00 a.m.
