The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.
If there’s an unsung hero of the pandemic, it’s the United States Postal Service. The virus has ravaged our country and economy, killed our loved ones and forced many of us to remain at home while practicing social distancing. Meanwhile, Southern Arizona’s postal workers have donned their uniforms, loaded their delivery trucks and dispersed across our region delivering the supplies, medicines and packages many of us have relied upon to stay safely at home. Whether it’s a senior awaiting that Social Security check, a veteran expecting an urgent delivery of life-saving medication, or a child excitedly anticipating a package from grandparents who live far away, USPS reliably ensures that all are delivered in a timely fashion — regardless of where you live.
But it’s not just about delivering the mail. As the pandemic has upended every aspect of our lives, so too is it upending the upcoming election. With the virus surging in areas across the West and Southeast — and no serious plan to fight the virus coming from the Trump administration — it is simply too dangerous to expect millions of Americans to stand in long, crowded lines outside of polling locations to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Thankfully, we have an institution more than capable of handling this issue: USPS. For decades, Arizona has safely relied on the USPS to deliver mail ballots to large numbers of Arizona voters who can vote-by-mail or drop them at any polling place on Election Day. Millions of voters casting their ballots for candidates of both parties have been able to conveniently participate in the democratic process.
But the integrity of this election is at stake as the Trump administration has begun a deliberate, coordinated process to change USPS operations months before a pivotal election in which Trump is on the ballot — and trailing in national polls. Under the guise of efficiency and modernization efforts, Trump’s hand-picked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy began implementing drastic measures to curtail overtime for postal workers, remove sorting machines from processing centers and remove numerous blue collection boxes from the streets. While these “reforms” have since halted after public outcry, it’s not enough. The attacks on the foundation of our democracy are clear.
This is all part of a pattern where Trump creates chaos in every government institution he touches. We’ve seen it in his poor management of this health crisis, and we’ve seen it as he’s appointed cabinet secretaries to lead departments that they’ve ultimately sought to disempower. Betsy DeVos at Education, David Bernhardt at Interior, Scott Pruitt at EPA, and now DeJoy at USPS. DeJoy had no previous experience with the postal service and is a GOP-mega donor who has now become a willing accomplice is Trump’s efforts to dismantle USPS. No matter the situation, all roads lead back to Trump’s unprecedented corruption.
And the president will continue to go lower. The disruption of our mail system is clearly part of a larger ploy to discredit an election that he is in danger of losing. Over the past few months, Trump may not have had time to actually work on a plan to fight the pandemic that has killed over 170,000 Americans or mitigate its economic impacts, but he has had time to rail against the supposed “dangers” of voting by mail — without any facts to back up his assertions. According to him, voting by mail is “rampant fraud” and a “mail-in-scam,” but ironically, it’s good enough for him and the first lady to vote-by-mail in Florida.
Trump is once again intentionally lying to the American people. Numerous elections experts and studies have demonstrated that voter fraud is extremely rare. In fact, one is more likely to get struck by lightning than commit voter fraud. But for a man who never has taken responsibility for anything in his life, this is but another play to cast blame and evade responsibility for his own failures. Only this time, the victim is the integrity of our elections and future of our democracy.
Protecting the USPS isn’t just about protecting packages and letters. It’s about protecting and creating jobs, getting resources to families and medicine to veterans. It’s a matter of protecting this country and our right to vote. In May, I voted for the Heroes Act to give $25 billion to USPS to deal with the surges in mail and packages during the pandemic and to shore up its ability to help with election mail come November. That legislation has collected dust on Mitch McConnell’s desk since then, and Trump’s other Republican enablers in the Senate have remained conspicuously silent. That’s why the House of Representatives held a special session over the weekend to pass a bill to formally stop DeJoy’s implementation of Trump’s destructive agenda and inject $25 billion in funds to USPS to protect and provide for increased services in the upcoming months.
Since its inception, USPS has gone above and beyond to connect Americans to one another and provide essential goods and services to all of us — whether we live in rural or urban environments. The founders of this nation also understood this, and it’s why the postal service is enumerated in the Constitution. In a time of deep polarization and unfortunate distrust in many government institutions, USPS remains steadfastly popular among people from all backgrounds and political ideologies. This year, in the middle of a pandemic, USPS will play an undeniably important role in ensuring that all Americans can safely exercise their right to vote. Protecting it shouldn’t be a partisan issue, and neither should protecting the ability for all of our citizens to safely cast their votes in the 2020 election.
