The USPS struggles
Voter fraud, loss of funding, and political agenda
Over the past few months, there have been rumors that President Trump is trying to defund or destroy the postal service. The concern started in mid August, when President Trump appointed a new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. From that point, the President has expressed his opposition to granting the postal service funds for the purpose of mail in ballots.
The USPS, or The United States Postal Service, has been delivering mail in this country since the Revolutionary War. It differs from UPS, the United Parcel service, and FedEx in that it is a part of the federal government. FedEx and UPS are also focused on the shipping of packages for large corporations, while USPS handles small paper mail.
However, new communication technology has pressured the USPS. USPS estimates that if they do not receive additional funding, and if package volume returns to pre-COVID levels, they will run out of money by April 2021. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues in the United States, the number of voters who choose to vote by mail is expected to increase. According to an article from the Pew Research Center, nearly 21% of voters in the 2016 election did so by mail, which is an increase from 7.8% in 1996.
President Trump has denied USPS’s request for additional funding in order to handle election ballots. A concern is the supposed increase of voter fraud in the upcoming election. The Brennan Center for Justice ranked the risk of ballot fraud at 0.00004% to 0.0009% in 2017, based on studies of past elections.
Although more people are sure to utilize the option of ballots by mail, not everyone is in support of that.
“I’ve been voting for almost 47 years, and I’ve always voted in person. That’s the way it should be done. You go to a booth and you show up and you support your country. I just don’t trust the mail to send important stuff like ballots,” said retired Cook Nuclear Plant employee Kurt Layman.
Donald Trump and many in his administration have attacked mail in voting in favor of traditional polling locations, which may not be a feasible option for voters this year.
“They (USPS) want three and a half billion dollars for something that’ll turn out to be fraudulent,” said President Trump during a White House briefing.
Some citizens suspect more insidious intentions.
“Trumps trying to destroy the post office during an election year where many people are going to be voting by mail in order to make it easier to win,” said Alyssa Hyska, 11.
In an experiment done by an NBC investigative news team, 155 mock ballots were sent from city to city and in large metropolitan areas. Of these, 88% arrived at the P.O boxes on time. Ballots that don’t arrive on time will not be counted, and 12% is a tremendous amount in any election.
Submitting mail in ballots weeks before election day is critical, as to give the USPS the time they need. However, most states send out their mail in ballots only a few days before election day.
The outcome of the 2020 election will be greatly determined by how effectively the USPS is able to process millions of mail in ballots this year. Only time will tell.