Alert for Americans

[rachelmanija]

As you have probably heard, the US Post Office has been sabotaged by Trump appointee Louis DeJoy. What you may not be aware of is exactly how bad the damage is.

I recently had a box of perishable pastries mailed to me from one section of Los Angeles to another. When they arrived, the postmark showed that they had been sent Priority 1-Day mail on July 22. They arrived on August 9 - almost three weeks later.

Earlier, I had a box of refrigerated medication sent Priority 1-Day mail. It was stuck in transit for nine days. Like the pastries, it was ruined by the time of arrival.

Those are the most egregious examples, but since DeJoy took over, my mail has generally been unreliable and sometimes doesn't arrive at all.

Many states in America will throw out ballots that arrive late, even if they were postmarked on Election Day. Trump has already stated that he intends the election to be decided by the end of the day of Election Day, regardless of how many mail-in ballots have not been counted. He's also already stated that he considers mail-in ballots to be often fraudulent and invalid.

If you intend to vote by mail and your state has ballot drop-off boxes, don't mail your ballot. Put it in a drop-off box. Mailed-in ballots are liable to arrive weeks late or never.

Comments

[havocthecat]

It is HORRIFIC. ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC.

[redbird]

"Decided by the end of election day" also means "we're going to try to ignore Washington and Oregon, where everyone votes by mail, and which we assume will go for Biden."

Washington has ballot drop boxes, but few people use them even when there's no pandemic. Washington, at least, explicitly counts anything either postmarked or dropped off by Election Day.

[boxofdelights]

And Colorado! Which has historically been a swing state but no way in hell will we swing Republican if the incumbent is their nominee.

[meara]

I actually almost always use the ballot boxes...but my problem this year was that my primary ballot (for the election last week) didn't arrive, so a week before the election I had to request a new one and hope it arrived in time...(spoiler: they both arrived on Saturday before the election, so it worked out, but geez--I've sometimes gotten my ballot a day or two after other friends, but not that late!)

[ethelmay]

The ballot box in my Seattle neighborhood traditionally has long lines on election day (and has to be emptied frequently), so I think of it as getting heavy use. I certainly have always used it. I heard the other day that King County was going to put out more ballot boxes, which would be a good thing for lots of reasons.

[holyschist]

Oregon has ballot drop boxes (at libraries, not sure about anywhere else), but...I am not sure how that's going to work right now.

[twistedchick]

I have received an acknowledgement that I applied for an absentee ballot; when it arrives I will use it and then drive up to the Board of Elections to drop it off immediately.

[lferion]

Very appropriate icon is very appropriate.

I also happened to glance at your 'Eldrich Horrors' tag, which also seems appropriate.

[naraht]

So those of us who live overseas are basically screwed. I wonder if I can use FedEx or something.

[rachelmanija]

If possible, I think that would be better.

[mount_oregano]

I used to live overseas and was part of voting projects for US expats -- with plenty of lawyers to help us. Yes, you can use FedEx. It's legal. As you no doubt know, overseas mail has become iffy due to covid. Mail used to travel on airplanes as cargo, but now there are fewer airplanes, so overseas mail can be deferred simply due to lack of cargo space. I just got a piece from Spain that was mailed more than a month ago. But FedEx, while expensive, is more reliable right now.

[toastykitten]

I just saw this on Twitter, you can use the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot - various state laws apply, but you should be able to use this ballot as a backup.

[naraht]

Ah yes, I saw that too and will strongly consider it. Thanks for sharing - it's something that deserves to be shared widely!

[holyschist]

Depending on your state, you *may* be able to waive your secret ballot and vote by email; I did that for my last state/local election in Oregon and I think I can do it for the federal election, although I need to verify.

I think you can also vote at an embassy by diplomatic pouch, if you can get to one.

[minoanmiss]

I am really tempted to write an essay titled "Why Republicans don't want poor kids to write to Santa" but I will refrain and instead signal-boost this information when I'm done with work.

[xanh]

This is so stressful.

[rachelmanija]

Yeah. In three months, we'll know if things will get drastically better or drastically worse.

[scioscribe]

This is all fucking horrifying. I feel like some part of me is just on hold, stressed out, waiting for November--and I wish I could be sure that November would definitely make things better.

[rachelmanija]

I know. I think at best we will have a violent, contested election which Trump tries but fails to steal.

[bell]

Mind if I signal boost this on DW?

[rachelmanija]

Sure, go for it.

[ravens_quill]

Hawai'i decided to switch wholly to mail-in voting this year and sent out mail-in ballots to everyone for this primary (this past Saturday). Even before Aug. 8, they said they had a higher rate of participation than any (recent?) primary. But they made a big point of reminding people to mail it in early or drop it off at one of the drop-off ballot box locations.

What the administration is doing to the USPS is appalling.

[dantesspirit]

Virginia has been really pushing absentee ballots because of the pandemic. I'm really hoping we have the ballot drop off boxes. Otherwise, with the USPS sabotage, who knows. And yes, DeJoy's appointment was definitely intended to sabotage the election.

And funny thing- Trump thinks mail in ballots are wrong, but *absentee ballots* are ok.

It's like he doesn't understand that *absentee ballots are mail in ballots*. And that our overseas military servicemembers have been voting that way *for decades*.

And he can't declare the election done at the end of the day. He doesn't have that authority or power. But, his supporters don't care.

[rachelmanija]

Yeah, that's the problem: Trump has no authority to declare the election over, but all authority ultimately rests in power. He's done a lot of things he has no authority to do, but if his enablers support him and no one who opposes him has the power to stop him, then whatever he wants happens.

[lokifan]

Jesus :(((

[bemused_writer]

It really is awful what's happening to the post office; just disgraceful, really, but I suppose that's par for the course of late. ): I have a package that's been stuck for over a month, and I can't even be upset about it; the restrictions they've been placed under makes it seem like a miracle anything is getting here. *sigh* But absolutely excellent point about ballot drop-off boxes; we've always used those and it looks like that will continue!

[gwyn]

I think one of the worst things about this, aside from trying to steal an election by post office fiat, is that a huge proportion of his base--seniors who vote straight Republican ticket no matter what--are being dangerously adversely affected by this and they won't even know it's his and his bootlickers' fault. They won't get their medications in time, but no one will ever tell them the truth on Faux news about why that's happening--they'll just blame bad management at the PO and tell the seniors affected by it that it's the Democrats' fault.