With less than three months to go until Nov. 3, the cash-strapped United States Postal Service has been thrust into the center of the presidential election.
The independent federal agency is facing financial setbacks made worse by the coronavirus pandemic — as well as fears of disenfranchisement with more and more COVID-19-wary voters turning to mail-in ballots.
Here’s a look into how the USPS crisis unfolded.
How is the USPS funded?
Congress created the USPS to replace the old Post Office Department in 1972, making it a permanent fixture of the federal government.
The agency, however, isn’t funded by tax dollars — it instead “relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations,” according to its website.
The USPS takes in about $71 billion in annual revenue and delivers 48 percent of the world’s mail.
But with snail mail on a sharp decline, the last year the USPS recorded a profit was in 2006 — with its cumulative losses totaling $83.1 billion as of March 31, Pew Research reported.
The agency was also hampered in 2006 by a new law requiring it to pre-fund all current and former employee retirement and health benefits, according to CNBC.
Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the USPS’ funding crisis has been heightened.
Why are people protesting against Postmaster General DeJoy?
In June, President Trump appointed a new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, to deal with the financial mess, with the USPS recording a net loss of $2.2 billion for the third quarter of 2020.
DeJoy, a Trump donor, has gone on to cut overtime, late delivery trips and other expenses that ensure mail is delivered on time. As a result, there’s been a national slowdown of mail.
Demonstrations were held in front of DeJoy’s home in Washington, DC, last week, with the former logistics company executive accused of sabotaging the USPS and undermining democracy ahead of the presidential election.
CNN also reported that hundreds of mail-sorting machines were slated for “reduction” this year — with some being removed in June.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, however, insisted that no sorting machines would be nixed between now and the election.
The USPS, meanwhile, has been hoping for a $10 billion infusion in coronavirus relief funds, though negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on a broader relief package broke down before Congress went on summer recess.
How could this affect the election?
With no end in sight to the COVID-19 crisis, more people are turning to mail-in ballots as a way to cast their votes.
Some states, including New Jersey, have opted to conduct November’s general election entirely by mail. Election officials are bracing for the possibility that half of all voters, or even more, will vote by mail — which could be an issue amid a national mail slowdown.
“We’re in the middle of a historic pandemic and as many as 40 percent of Americans plan on casting their ballot by mail. If we can’t rely on those ballots getting to where they need to go, we’ve got a serious problem with democracy,” Patrick Young of Shut Down DC told WUSA9 News at the protest at DeJoy’s home.
Last month, the USPS’s general counsel and executive vice president Thomas J. Marshall sent letters to states saying many of them have voting deadlines that are too tight — and warned that mailed ballots may not be counted in time.
States can act to change their mail balloting deadlines — like Pennsylvania, which asked a court to move the deadline to three days after the Nov. 3 vote, as long as ballots are mailed before polls close on Election Day.
What are politicians doing?
Congress is on its summer break, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is recalling members of the chamber to return later this week to vote on legislation that would prohibit any changes in mail delivery or services for the rest of the year.
What has Trump said about it?
For years, Trump has blamed the USPS’s financial woes on e-commerce businesses like Amazon, which he claims doesn’t pay its fair share in postage.
“They come in and they drop all their mail into a post office — not all of it but a big percentage of it — and they say, ‘Here, you deliver it, you stupid people, you deliver it.’ And it costs us every time they drop a package,” Trump said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
Trump wants the USPS to raise package rates to plug its budget gap.
Last week, he opposed additional funds for the agency and mail-in voting — but later walked back the comments, saying he wouldn’t hold up funding.
“No, not at all,” Trump answered when asked whether he’d veto a coronavirus relief bill that included USPS funds.
“But one of the reasons the post office needs that much money is they have all these millions of ballots coming in from nowhere and nobody knows from where and where they’re going.”
Trump has repeatedly linked mail-in ballots with voter fraud, though he has not provided any evidence.
Can mail-in ballots be delivered any other way?
FedEx and UPS say they’re barred from delivering ballots because they must be postmarked — and only the USPS can do that.
But voters can drop off their ballot in person at a polling site.
With Post wires