The Postal Service is Not Ready for November

[yuiyoshida]

By Marc Elias on July 19, 2020
Wisconsin’s April primary election illustrated exactly what could go wrong in an American election during the pandemic. Voters faced long lines, conflicting government orders, and spikes of the virus.

Wisconsin was only the beginning.

Since then, we have witnessed state after state struggle with the exact same problems.

In Georgia, poll worker shortages, precinct closures, and equipment problems yielded hours-long wait times throughout the state.

In Nevada, the last voter in Clark County didn’t cast his ballot until 3:09 AM.

In Kentucky, we saw alarmingly high rates of absentee ballot rejections.


more...
https://www.democracydocket.com/2020/07/usps-not-ready/

[dchill]

1. It's intentional.

[Skittles]

4. of course it is

fuckers

[Hoyt]

2. One thing is clear, Democrats need to beg voters not to wait until the last minute.

Anyone who waits until the last minute, whether voting by mail or in person, is putting their vote at risk.

The USPS can handle the load, but why wait until last minute?

[soothsayer]

3. Exactly

If you can vote early in a county building or something that avoids the mail... even better.

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Biden needs to emphasize it during debates

Lincoln Project needs to devote an ad

Also all the ballot designs need to be checked and approved ahead of time. No more of this crap being surprised after the fact when voters are missing races or double voting. The entire party is not doing its job if things like that are allowed to continue

[Hoyt]

7. +1000000.

[Blue_true]

10. BINGO!!!!!!!!

I have NO idea why someone would wait until the last minute once primaries are over. What in the hell are they waiting to see?

[demigoddess]

5. in our state you can drop off your ballot in big boxes at say, the library

and voting people bring trucks and pick them up. You can mail them if you want to.

[Horse with no Name]

8. I ordered something off of Etsy 3 weeks ago

It has been in Texas for 2 weeks, however, it has still not reached me.
They are intentionally sabotaging the post office.

[stillcool]

9. we need state-wide organization..

and a frigging plan. Sitting by and waiting for it to play out, makes no sense. Surely there's something citizens can do, to require their state to provide free, fair, and accurate elections. The court cases never end, but one dirty trick gets shut down, only to be replaced by another. Whack-a-mole and we the voters are always on defense. The Republican controlled states just keep on coming up with ways to disenfranchise more and more people.

[stillcool]

11. and then there's this...

Postal Service memos detail ‘difficult’ changes, including slower mail delivery
Analysts say the memos recast the USPS as a business rather than a government service
By
Jacob Bogage
July 14, 2020 at 12:47 p.m. EDT
The new head of the U.S. Postal Service established major operational changes Monday that could slow down mail delivery, warning employees the agency would not survive unless it made “difficult” changes to cut costs. But critics say such a philosophical sea change would sacrifice operational efficiency and cede its competitive edge to UPS, FedEx and other private-sector rivals.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told employees to leave mail behind at distribution centers if it delayed letter carriers from their routes, according to internal USPS documents obtained by The Washington Post and verified by the American Postal Workers Union and three people with knowledge of their contents, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.

“If the plants run late, they will keep the mail for the next day,” according to a document titled, “New PMG’s [Postmaster General’s] expectations and plan.” Traditionally, postal workers are trained not to leave letters behind and to make multiple delivery trips to ensure timely distribution of letters and parcels.
************************************************

Trump calls for Postal Service to increase some package rates 400 percent
President Trump on April 24 called the U.S. Postal Service a “joke” and said they should raise rates on some services. (The Washington Post)
Congress authorized the USPS to borrow an additional $10 billion from the Treasury Department for emergency operations in an early coronavirus relief bill. But postal leaders have yet to access the money over disagreements with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who attached terms on the loan that would turn over operations of much of the Postal Service to his department.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/14/postal-service-trump-dejoy-delay-mail/