Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.
The U.S. Postal Service has become an unexpected hot button issue in the presidential race, with accusations and rumors lying about slow mail deliveries, closed branches, absent mailboxes, and much more.
Does the Post Office have problems? Absolutely, and official Washington has been told about them, repeatedly and for years.
As Reason’s Nick Gillespie writes, the real problem with the Post Office and any possible problems it may have handling a surge in the number of mail-in ballots this November isn’t because of a sinister Republican plot. The Postal Service’s problems have always been there, in plain sight, for anyone willing to pay attention:
…if the USPS screws up delivering votes in a timely and efficient manner this fall, it won’t be because of any sinister actions by the White House. It will be because of longstanding, well-documented managerial and cultural problems that gave rise to such stock portrayals of letter carriers as Seinfeld’s Newman and Cheers’ Cliff Clavin. As Reason’s Eric Boehm has documented, it may take weeks or even months for a final tally of all votes this fall; depending on the closeness of the race on Election Day, that waiting period may be excruciating to live through. But that has less to do with the USPS and more to do with local and state voting boards.
For those who are interested in the post office’s chronically bad performance and “unsustainable” situation, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has produced a long list of studies on where the problems come from and how they might be addressed. The short version is that Congress has blocked all sorts of serious reforms to an operation that has seen a 33 percent decline in mail volume since 2006.
If you do want an option to cast an in-person ballot on Nov. 3, don’t want to trust your ballot to the mail, 39 states and DC offer early, in-person voting. More information on that, including dates and procedures, can be found here.
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They made their own problems. Lately, every year we have to deal with another postage stamp increase because of their terrible management. If we fail to get rid of their management, we’ll never get out of this mess. Hopefully America will deny this request for another increase. I’m at my local post office at least twice a week taking care of my mailing business, and never once have I seen these people work harder and faster to take care of everyone before they close their doors for the day. No one hurries to get to the next person in line. Frequently they have only one window open and the folks are in lines almost to the entry door. They need to be DENIED this INCREASE and EVERY post office needs to be inspected for efficiency. Believe me, most will end up losing an employee or two due to miss-management.
This year the post office cost me over $200.00 in lost packages and items that came out if the boxes. The first one was Christmas Presents, our post office uses lobby lock boxes when packages come in that will not fit in the small boxes. Our office is only open from 8AM to 12:30 PM M-F. They are supposed to put the keys to the lobby boxes in your mail box. How ever they get in a hurry and don’t pay attention to anther job. I was waiting for my item and it didn’t show, so did a search and found out that it had been delivered 10 days earlier . Talked to the clerk and found out that the rush that day was tow (2) packages. Needless to say I was never composted for my loss, as they say the package was delivered. To someone else, no help getting it back. Another time I received and empty box, no items in it . Have you ever tried to fill out one of those missing package form, A psychopath must have made them out.
No satisfaction on any of my losses. GREAT OUTFIT, THEY USE TO SEND MAIL ON HORSEBACK AND IT ARRIVED AS IT WAS SUPPOSED TOO.
The biggest problem they have been plagued with for years aside from mismanagement is the internet and smart phones. Folks don’t mail near as much because they can pay their bills and shop online.
Hence severe lost revenues to pay high wages.
Along with the online shopping folks are using UPS and FedEx for shipping primarily because it’s usually cheaper and much faster.
So the USPS has been falling deeper in debt for years now due to a huge lack of competiveness.
No Pelosi bail out is going to help, its too late. Her bail out plan is nothing but optics in hope of rigging an election.
No it does seem very coincidental, that if all these problems exist why did it take Trump almost 4 years to do any thing about it. Now when Trump is complaining bout mail in voting, and suddenly he appoints someone who is dismantling the post office just before a major election, in which the President does not want mail in voting.
Now this should raise huge questions with everyone who is afraid of contracting the virus but now I am afraid to mail my ballot in because it might not get there on time on time so you have to expose your self to the huge possibility of getting ill to vote.
Now on top of that my prescriptions are coming late and I had two late charges last month because my payment did not get here on time even though it was mailed the same day i have been mailing it in for the past 5 years.
only congress can make changes to the post office and neither party has done anything to fix it!trump hired someone that’s businessman to take over a poorly run business.i always send my bills by mail because i don’t trust the internet! do we really need mail 6 days a week?if most people are like me we get 8 bills a month which is all my bills.except for xmas when i receive more.i don’t care if a stamp costs $1.00 i will continue to use it!now the congress wants to give it 25 billion and that’s not right!i have a lot of suggestions on how to fix some of their cost problems without getting rid of employees but it’s too simple for politicians to understand!start with their pensions and and health insurance coverage.use ira’s or k plans like most companies did in the 90’sincrease the share of health insurance from their employees.i don’t expect them to make money but breaking even is better than what they,ve been doing for years!and stop blaming trump for putting in someone than has business experience and people shoul look up his name and see his siccess!