A USPS employee fires a mailbox in Washington, DC
Photo: Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc. by Getty Imag
President Donald Trump despises the idea of e-mail voting, which – in the midst of a pandemic – offers the nation the safest means of casting its ballots in November. Trump has spent months portraying a complete legal practice as fraudulent, “bad, dishonest and slow,” and the recent chaos he has sown in the United States Postal Service has sparked speculation that he may be trying to post-in- to sabotage mood. On Thursday, he seems to confirm those theories, admitting that he found the USPS of money to hinder the preparations for preparations for the Democratic election.
Not long after Trump made his remarks, he finished interesting images started making the rounds on Twitter. They pictured blue, standing mailboxes that were packed on trucks in Portland and Eugene, Oregon, and departed. In particular, given that President Portland has chosen as a test ground for his ‘secret police’, around the wording of sen. To borrow Elizabeth Warren, you can see where the photos looked like.
Even before he sincerely stated why he refused the postal service – which has been under severe punishment during the entire pandemic – the bailout it needed to meet widespread post-in-vote, Trump has created problems for the office. Late last week, the administration slammed USPS leadership and consolidated authority under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who appears to be actively working against the possibility of email delivery of the service since his appointment in May. The timing of all this may not seem coincidental, but at least with respect to Oregon’s missing mailboxes, the USPS has suggested that it is.
Confirm that 27 boxes in Eugene and four boxes in Portland were removed this week (with more to follow), USPS spokeswoman Ernie Swanson said Willamette Week that the office was only focused on pages where boxes were duplicated. In those cases, they would take one box and leave the other standing; they do not remove solitary boxes from their locations, he added.
“The reason we are doing this is because of declining mail volume,” Swanson said, noting that orders came from USPS HQ last week. “Since the pandemic came, people have been sending less for some reason.”
Meanwhile, another USPS spokesman – David Rupert – told KOIN 6 that recently damaged mailboxes in Portland were replaced with “with newer, safer models,” but “any location that had a collection box will hold a collection box.” Talk to the Oregonian, Swanson also indicated that pickup times and processing would not change. “It should not affect people at all,” he said.
While I’m not a postmaster, I could see how – in “the 1st of the nation all state for postal voting”, where every voter gets a postal vote by default, amid a persistent pandemic, within polling stations make a risky statement – reducing the number of mailboxes on the streets may affect people a little. Oregon voters can still vote in person if they want to, or send their votes with designated dropboxes in their area, but regarding states with less robust mail-in voting protocols that already exist? Swanson indicated indicated Willamette Week that “boxes are likely to be removed nationwide,” which is just something to think about.
In any case, the Cut has contacted USPS for comment, and we will update when we hear back.
