-
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…
-
What Is Vote-by-Mail?
The election of 1864 was held in the midst of civil war — a national crisis of a magnitude our country had never seen before and has not seen since. One German-born commentator was shocked when the nation went ahead with elections. But Abraham Lincoln knew that if they allowed the flames of the Civil War to engulf the elections of 1864, the very republic he fought to preserve would also risk ruin. He said, “We cannot have free Government without elections, and if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us” (Nov. 10, 1864).…
