US Postal Service delays threaten to disrupt election voting, officials say

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/11/usps-mail-election-ballots-voting

by howard941 • 2 years ago

47 40 2 years ago

97s2• 2 years ago

I mail products every day through USPS just like a million other businesses. We resend about 1/25 packages every single day due to it being indefinitely delayed beyond some reasonable time line. We just eat the loss and move on, USPS is absolute disaster right now. I didn't even think about voting mail in ballots. That is going to be a major problem if the vote is close.

WarOnPrivacy• 2 years ago

We resend about 1/25 packages every single day due to it being indefinitely delayed beyond some reasonable time line.

I've found USPS to be like the VA. They're excellent for us (W.Cent.FL). Other regions have horror stories.

Most of my USPS stories are very positive. The 1 or 2 protracted issues were resolved well - even if the gears ground somewhat slowly.

One of my clients is a web retailer. I grabbed a quick look at their shipment notifications back to June and didn't spot any USPS delivery issues. It's all small parcels so maybe that's a factor.

97s2• 2 years ago

Most of it is because of Atlanta district. Palmetto is a major crisis that everyone is just ignoring. Prior to this year we never had much issues at all. Thousands of packages with maybe 1 missing because it was stolen after delivery. The problem now is all of our missed packages are sitting in a bin at palmetto indefinitely pushed into a corner. DeJoy needs to be fired but no one wants to do their job I guess.

landedgentry• 2 years ago

I have had enough problems with USPS, both sending and receiving, that I no longer rely on them, and I'm just an average person who doesn't use USPS much. Whether it's first-class, certified mail, or priority mail with tracking–they all get lost at higher than acceptable rates. (Maybe domestic registered mail is the last reliable option.)

When a mail piece gets stuck or lost, there's no way to get help. USPS staff is generally unhelpful. It's a disaster.

tjr• 2 years ago

My utility bills seem to arrive without issue.

nicwolff• 2 years ago

How the hell is Louis DeJoy still the Postmaster General?

howard941• 2 years ago

You'll have to ask the Board of Governors of the USPS. DeJoy answers to them.

reverius42• 2 years ago

DeJoy, besides being Postmaster General and CEO of the USPS, also appears to be a member of the board of governors. I bet his friends on the board think he's doing a fine job.

lxgr• 2 years ago

Great stuff.

Beyond the obviously concerning impact in the US domestically, I’m mail voting in my own country’s elections, and this year will probably mark the second election I’ll miss because of the USPS’s current state.

proc03• 2 years ago

Great, and then there will be no way to certify or validate the chain of custody when they're counted. This all adds to people not trusting elections, and it's crazy this isn't top priority.

SllX3• 2 years ago

So how do other States handle this? I get a text message when my ballot is marked as received and counted, and the ballot comes with tear-off receipts that I retain until the ballot is counted. Never had an issue with my ballot not being counted though.

For reference I got this message two days after Super Tuesday 2024, two days after the November 8th election in 2022, and two days after the Summer 2022 elections. There’s also a website I can check to see if my ballots were Accepted or not going all the way back to the 2016 General Election.

Why not just do that?

proc03• 2 years ago

I don't know all the details but I think the issue is not so much people confirming their own vote as much as states validating all the votes. Many states have provisional ballots and I'm not sure how those are checked to be valid. As far as mail-in ballots, what if you vote twice once with the mail-in ballot and again in-person? I don't think that gets checked before announcing results, and challenging the results is not straight forward, very contentious and political for no reason. All states should have immediate provable results with redundancy checks.

BillSaysThis2• 2 years ago

This is intentional on DeJoy's part and a big part of why he was appointed.

CamperBob22• 2 years ago

So what's Biden's excuse for keeping him? He's had almost four years to find someone else (or more specifically to appoint board governors who will.)

abracadaniel• 2 years ago

Not appointed by the president. So, there’s no legal way to do that directly.

BillSaysThis2• 2 years ago

This is an excellent question! I believe Biden has had time to change the USPS Board of Governors but somehow DeJoy is still in place.

rdtsc4• 2 years ago

They could mandate a federal holiday for people so they can take time to vote in person. Some states have laws about a minimum allowable time some don’t. A federal holiday would make it uniform.

We claim voting is so important yet we can’t seem to be able to fix aspects of it that other, more resource constrained countries managed.

beaglesss2• 2 years ago

We can't even get photo ID required to vote for federal office, despite the law requiring it for other stuff that is a right ascribed merely to people ( guns ) unlike voting which is expressly protected for citizens ( although non-citizens could vote for local office if law allows it like in American samoa.)

rdtsc4• 2 years ago

Exactly. This should be basic stuff.

After landing on the moon we shouldn’t be bickering and arguing who voted and who didn’t, and if there was fraud or not.

IDs should be free and available to every voter. There should be a federal voting holiday, because it’s an important event.

jkestner2• 2 years ago

That's not the same kind of problem. Photo ID requirements restrict voting access, voting holiday expands it.

ianhawes• 2 years ago

In my suburban town of ~40,000 people, we share stories on our community Facebook group of going days without receiving mail and tracking packages stuck at our local post office that go undelivered for days. I call it "postal workers working from home".

I suspect the primary issue is that there are simply way less people willing to work as letter carriers. The pay has not scaled and you're working long hours, Monday through Saturday. Not exactly a dream job.

meowster• 2 years ago

The pay has not scaled and you're working long hours, Monday through Saturday. Not exactly a dream job.

This describes my federal job. I wonder how many other federal jobs are like this. My coworkers used to put up with the stress/schedule/etc, but now the pay does not outweigh the cons. I foresee the industry I'm working in, becoming a shitshow; I wonder what other industries will follow suit.

beaglesss2• 2 years ago

I remember being homeless and wanting to apply as a USPS mail sorter. There was a big warning on the application that inaccuracies were a felony. I don't have a great memory of all my job and life history so I decided a was better off homeless than a homeless felon. I wonder how many people that keeps away.

usea• 2 years ago

I suspect the primary issue is that there are simply way less people willing to work as letter carriers.

A family member of mine works for the post office in their city. They don't have trouble hiring for any positions. There is a long waiting list that takes months to get through to be given a chance at the bottom of the totem pole. The various postal unions give the jobs good benefits, pay, hours, etc. Carriers specifically are highly sought-after positions that can set you up for life.

It's not a matter of not being able to find people. it's not willing to hire more people. I would be very surprised if the post office in your town is trying to hire people, but nobody is willing to work. It's a great job, and people line up to work there.

US Postal Service delays threaten to disrupt election voting, officials say

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