MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-08-22 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] US Postal Service and Elections
|
wsj.com
Opinion | The Postal Service’s Good Election Advice
The Editorial Board
4-5 minutes
Demonstrators with Shut Down DC protest outside the home of Postmaster
General Louis DeJoy in Washington, D.C., Aug. 15.
Photo: Eric Lee/Bloomberg News
News broke Friday that the U.S. Postal Service has warned dozens of
states, via letters from USPS General Counsel Thomas Marshall, that
their deadlines “for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are
incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards.” On cue,
Democrats and the press portrayed this as evidence of Trumpian sabotage
and voter suppression.
In reality, it’s closer to the opposite: an attempt by the USPS to
forestall state election failure. The letters were planned before the
new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, took the reins on June 15. Mr.
Marshall sent nearly identical advice to election officials in a May
letter posted at USPS.com. Strange public conspiracy.
“To account for delivery standards and to allow for contingencies (e.g.,
weather issues or unforeseen events), voters should mail their return
ballots at least 1 week prior to the due date,” Mr. Marshall wrote in
May. The same rule, he added, should apply to blank ballots: “The Postal
Service also recommends that state or local election officials use
FirstClass Mail and allow 1 week for delivery to voters.”
These guidelines are worth reiterating, given how states have bungled
their recent primary elections. New York voters can request an absentee
ballot using a mail application, which is valid if postmarked a week
before Election Day. As a result of this lax deadline, plus a deluge of
applications, roughly 30,000 ballots weren’t mailed to voters until June
22, a day before the primary election.
That seven-day deadline “is unrealistic,” Douglas Kellner, co-chair of
the New York State Board of Elections, testified in court last month.
The state board has argued for moving it back to 14 days, in line with
the USPS suggestion of allowing seven days for delivery each way. Is Mr.
Kellner complicit in postal sabotage?
Some states have even shorter deadlines. “Requests to have an absent
voter ballot mailed to you must be received by your clerk no later than
5 p.m. the Friday before the election,” says Michigan’s Secretary of
State. That’s a mere four days (including a Sunday) before the voting.
If a Michigander files a request on Oct. 30, how realistic is it to
expect that the ballot can be processed, mailed, voted and return
mailed—all by Nov. 3?
The USPS understandably does not want to be set up for failure, which is
evident in the laconic comment of its spokeswoman. “The Postal Service,”
she said Friday, “is asking election officials and voters to
realistically consider how the mail works.”
President Trump isn’t helping Mr. DeJoy with his contradictory claims
that mail voting will be “rigged,” even as he says the USPS needs more
money to execute it. But Democrats are as culpable for spinning
post-office conspiracies without evidence. Barack Obama fed the
political misinformation feedback loop on a podcast Friday by saying
President Trump is trying to “actively kneecap the Postal Service.” On
Saturday morning, protesters followed the former President’s lead and
banged pots and pans outside Mr. DeJoy’s Washington, D.C., condo.
The people who really need a wake-up call are election officials in
states like Michigan and New York, and the media are giving them a pass.
Journal Editorial Report: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says unions
are blocking a return to classroom instruction. Image: Reuters/Brendan
McDermid
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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