Name: The USPS, Donald Trump, and the 2020 election
Uploaded: 2020-08-31
Duration: 4 min 28 s
Description: A record number of voters are expected to mail in their ballots this November

 NICOLE GOODKIND: Anyone who has the right to vote should be able to exercise their right safely. And now because of COVID-19, there are fears that heading to the polls will actually endanger people's lives. And so states are rapidly expanding their vote by mail programs. There are estimates that about 80% of voters will now be allowed to vote by mail or by absentee ballot. And we're expecting about 50% of voters to actually exercise that right. So that's a huge burden on the USPS that's already been burdened by COVID-19. They have tons of employees who are out. They're overtime work has been limited. And they've lost $20 billion, because of a lack of first class mail due to the virus and businesses shutting down. USPS has asked for $25 billion to help with this process. And on top of that, states are asking for additional funding, but they're just not getting what they need. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he's not passing anything that helps the USPS in that way. And President Donald Trump has said he'd veto anything that comes across his desk that would essentially bail out the USPS. Democrats are up in arms, and they're really using this as a way to help their own re-election campaigns. You see a lot of them out there campaigning actually collecting voters email addresses under the guise of helping USPS. But because they don't have a majority in the senate and they can't override any veto, there is really nothing they can do, unless Joe Biden wins this November. DONALD TRUMP: You know the things with bundling and all of the things that are happening with votes by mail, where thousands of votes are gathered-- and I'm not going to say which party does it-- but thousands of votes are gathered, and they come in and they're dumped in a location. And then all of a sudden, you lose elections that you think you're going to win. I won't stand for it. NICOLE GOODKIND: Vote by mail fraud is incredibly rare. It's a very safe system that's been used since the Civil War, but President Donald Trump keeps seeding distrust of the system and some fear. That's because he wants to challenge whatever the results may be come November, but it's kind of unclear why, because when you actually look at studies, you see that there's no partisan divide when it comes to voting by mail. Both Democrats and Republicans benefit from it about equally when you look at that historical evidence. LOUIS DEJOY: The postal service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's ballots securely and on time. This sacred duty is my number one priority between now and election day. NICOLE GOODKIND: The new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is a controversial figure for a number of reasons. He's given about $1.2 million to the Trump campaign and to various Republican entities since 2016. Before that he was a huge supporter of George W. Bush. He doesn't really have any history with the postal service. He worked in a logistics company before. He's actually invested in a lot of these other competitors-- so UPS and FedEx. He's worked with them as well, which raises some concerns. So Louis DeJoy came in and instituted what he thought were cost-saving measures right away. He ended overtime work. He made it so that postal carriers could only deliver within certain hours further slowing mail delivery, There have been accusations that DeJoy's been removing mailboxes. Although, those are unsustained, people have seen evidence of it, but we also do know that he has been removing postal sorting systems. The USPS says that this is part of a larger plan that began before Louis DeJoy was even postmaster general, but union officials question why they have to remove the actual sorting machines, instead of just turning them off. Now Louis DeJoy has said he'll stop making any further changes until after the election, but advocates for the USPS say that's not enough. He needs to go back and reverse these changes he's already made, because they've already done the damage. They've already slowed down the mail. If states and the USPS don't get this emergency funding, it's very possible that they won't be able to handle this influx of mail. They won't be able to have necessary PPE. They won't be able to send out ballots. And then what does an election look like? We might not know the results of this election, especially the down ballot races until the colder months. It's not a hyperbola to say that this could be really damaging to our democracy. And more than that, the USPS has been in trouble for years financially, but they still have a 91% favorability rating amongst Americans. If something goes wrong with this election, that could fall. And that could be what ultimately breaks USPS. 

A record number of voters are expected to mail in their ballots this November

The USPS, Donald Trump, and the 2020 election

Politics

A record number of voters will mail in ballots this year.

A record number of voters are expected to mail in their ballots this November.