Call to Action: Support the Mission of the United States Postal Service
Americans rate the United States Postal Service as their favorite federal agency. Its workforce of more than half a million is scattered across the U.S., making it the biggest employer of any government entity except the military. And it will play an outsized role in Americans’ ability to vote safely during the worst global health crisis in 100 years.
Yet the USPS is undergoing transformations, and not necessarily for the better. Its newly appointed postmaster general is implementing changes that have slowed mail delivery, which is problematic on at least three levels: First, the changes will damage the vote in terms of delivery time, votes held back, and a possible increased cost of mailing. Second, the changes will damage small businesses during the most significant economic downturn our country has faced since the Great Depression. Finally, the changes limit and slow the access of individuals to much-needed medicines and supplies during a pandemic.
These damaging changes come just as mail-in voting for the 2020 election ramps up. President Trump admitted to holding up a stimulus bill because of proposals to inject funds into the USPS to expand mail-in voting, saying “If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. They just can’t have it.” His consistent and frequent disparagement of mail-in voting increases voter confusion and distrust of a foundational institution of democracy. A confused voter is one who won’t vote.
To do:
Contact your members of Congress and express your concern that changes to the Postal Service will slow mail delivery. Americans need prompt and consistent mail delivery, especially when a large number of mail-in votes are expected in the 2020 elections.
In less than five minutes, you can submit a letter to all of your elected representatives at once via our website. You have the option to either write your own letter or answer some short prompts to have a personalized letter created for you. Go HERE to submit a letter.
Background:
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 November election will rely heavily on mail-in ballots, and thus, on the United States Postal Service. Unlike a private company, the USPS does not have the option of cutting back operations to shrink costs; if it did, rural and remote recipients might be dropped as unprofitable. As Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has said, the Postal Service is “a lifeline for so many of our communities. We are defenders of all of these programs because you can’t be treated differently just because you’re an American and you live in a village without a road.”
Indeed, “[t]he Postal Service’s mission is to provide the nation with reliable, affordable, universal mail service. The basic functions of the Postal Service were established in 39 U.S.C. § 101(a): ‘to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It [the Postal Service] shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.’” Particularly at this moment in history, the Postal Service is a vital part of our democracy.
Unfortunately, at the very time when timely mail delivery is becoming critical to the health and well-being of so many, Louis DeJoy, Trump’s newly appointed postmaster general, is implementing changes that have slowed mail delivery and has proposed a tripling in the cost for ballots to be mailed to voters. The “prompt, reliable” services of the USPS’s mission statement are being abandoned, and, after months of attacks by the president on mail-in ballots, it is reasonable to interpret this as a means to disrupt the 2020 election.
Louis DeJoy is a real-estate investor and Trump loyalist and donor with no Postal Service experience. He has significant conflicts of interest, including millions of dollars invested in post office competitors. DeJoy has created new rules for the agency, displaced postal executives with decades of experience, and concentrated power in his office, saying the new structure will create “clear lines of authority and accountability.” On Friday, August 7, DeJoy removed the two top Postal Service officials who oversaw day-to-day operations and reassigned 23 postal executives. These leadership changes have created disorder in operations and potentially compromised the agency’s independence. They have resulted in dramatic delays in service. This is a concern with deadlines for ballots to be counted in the election.
In addition, concerns are being expressed that DeJoy recommends raising the cost for mailing the 2020 election ballots to voters to $0.55 each (first class); this cost is nearly three times the standard bulk rate of $0.20. States and/or citizens will have to absorb the additional cost or risk having ballots arrive too late or not at all. A Postal Service committed to “render[ing] postal services to all communities” should not make entire states and counties unable to afford to send voters their ballots. Such changes will damage the vote in terms of delivery time, votes held back, and a proposed increased cost of mailing.
Slowing mail delivery will hurt Americans in other ways as well. Small businesses, already pummeled by the significant recent economic downturn and dependent on the Postal Service to deliver purchased goods to millions of customers, will be further damaged. Businesses rely on the Postal Service to “bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people … [and through] prompt, reliable, and efficient services.” According to a 2019 USPS report, 70% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees use the post office regularly and spend an average of $359 a month on shipping. Many microbusinesses run by women, for example, rely on the USPS to deliver their packages to consumers, who see late deliveries as a fault of the business owners, not the delivery service.
Finally, Americans’ access to much-needed medicines and supplies will be hindered if mail is unreliable and slow. For example, the vast majority of prescriptions from the Department of Veteran Affairs are fulfilled by mail. But as Postal Service delays mount, “more and more veterans are reporting long wait times to receive critical medication.”
The damage such changes will do to the vote, small businesses, and access to medicines and supplies is particularly concerning when viewed in light of Trump’s consistent and false claims that mail-in or absentee voting leads to a fraudulent election. For example, in a July 20 tweet, Trump wrote, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA.” Two weeks later Trump was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “Mail ballots, they cheat. Mail ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters. They go collect them. They are fraudulent in many cases. They have to vote. They should have voter ID, by the way.”
Yet according to numerous studies and investigations, there is no evidence of significant voter fraud with mail-in ballots. Mr. Trump’s suggestions that mail-in votes are fraudulent and that subsequent election results are invalid could contribute to a disputed presidential election in which one candidate openly questions the legitimacy of the results. Handicapping USPS delivery so that ballots are not received on time will slow the results of the election and disenfranchise voters. The millions of Americans who wish to vote securely and safely in November will in no way benefit from a compromised election.
Perhaps most frightening of all is Trump’s admission that he is holding up a stimulus bill because of proposals to inject funds into the USPS to expand mail-in voting. On Fox News Trump said, “If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. They just can’t have it.” Clearly, the intention is to prevent Americans from voting safely in November.
Mormon Women for Ethical Government believes the actions of Trump and DeJoy represent an egregious collection of abuses of power, both by implication and action, and thereby violate multiple MWEG Principles of Ethical Government:
1(a) People in positions of power should not lightly violate or discard long-standing political norms, especially norms that serve to limit the abuse of power (see D&C 121:39).
The constellation of actions and intents of this administration violates ethical and moral guidelines. Conflicts of interest, interference in elections, and disguised motives are antithetical to the rule of law and are clearly outside the bounds of long-standing norms. These abuses of power must be called out.
1(b) Government officials and institutions should be honest and transparent, insofar as possible without harming national security and individual rights (see D&C 123:13; Alma 37:25).
The appointment of a clearly unqualified executive with millions of dollars in conflicts of interest violates this principle of honesty and transparency. By doing so, the government risks the individual using his office for private gain. On a separate point, President Trump’s frequent lying about mail-in voting is dishonest and risks delegitimizing the election.
2(a) Political structures and electoral systems should be designed to maximize participation of and provide equitable access to all citizens in a society (see Mosiah 29:32).
3(b) Citizens have a duty to participate in representative government by casting an informed vote and seeking to engage with elected officials.
It is clear that absentee ballots, which rely on the Postal Service, will be critical in this election. To purposefully slow down the process by which those ballots are delivered to citizens and then back to the election offices is unethical because it will deny “equitable access” and result in thousands of votes going uncounted.
