Mail In Ballots and the Upcoming Election

[Deleted]

Aug 8, 2020 10:48:14 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Aug 8, 2020 10:32:39 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

It would be nice if they could figure out a way for people to opt out of daily delivery to save money.  I could for sure have a post office box or just one day a week delivery.  I get practically nothing in the mail and what I do is usually junk mail.  I'm sure there are a lot of people like that.

I have a post office box. My street address box has a zip tie on it. I got the post office box for security because I used to be out of town more. FWIW, it saves the local delivery person 2.73 seconds each day to not have to put mail in my box when stopped to put it in the other 5 boxes in the row. It is likely a net savings of 1.12 seconds as the PO box doesn't have to be opened. That is unless I haven't emptied the box and it takes more time to try and fit mail in.

Well, my post office box isn't in a row of them.   If you drive 3 miles in either direction on my road you will pass about 8 houses.  If half the people opted out of daily mail it would cut down on time to do the route significantly.   There's a house at the end of our dead end gravel road that the mailman has to make his way a half a mile down in bad weather for that one box.  It's a younger couple that live there too, so half the time it's probably just a flyer for a discounted oil change or something equally pointless. 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 8, 2020 10:07:44 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

What is awful is that the USPS does need an overhaul. Nobody needs their mail delivered on a near daily basis with email and bill paying online. Of if they think they do, they can get p.o. boxes.
Trump should have started this process a year or two ago, not an election year. Now, if Biden wins, the US is going to be doomed to maintaining the status quo for another four years.

Actually, they do.  So many prescription plans are mail order, including the VA.  Since there is a time limit to refill, right now with the slow down in delivery you have people needing to scramble to get their meds.  

I was reading an article about this.....and it is just going to get worse, especially since some of those meds (like insulin) come on ice.  

[Deleted]

I have a PO Box. We have no street delivery here in town. The town over has home delivery and Amazon delivers packages to their homes.

Amazon dumps ALL of our packages at the post office every day. It's a royal pain... It also limits what I will order from them because I have to drive over and get it and then lug it home. Kinda defeats the purpose. 

The problem isn't street delivery. It's the sorting process. Mail here is taking 8 days from 250 miles away and took 9 days from CA.

My son filed for UI and they sent him a form with a 10 calendar day deadline for returning documents. It arrived on day 9... So, yes, some important things are still mailed. And, this could turn into a complete cluster for DS since you can't just call UI and ever get through to anyone.

Also, RX delivery is an issue if you have Kaiser or one of the other places that doesn't give you a ton of time between when you can call in a refill and when they will mail it. My DH used to run out of medication all the time and that was when the post office was functioning well.

[jerseygirl]

Update on mail in election problems
In Paterson NJ where about 20% mail ballots disqualified. 4 people charged with fraud one of whom is to be on City Council but charged with fraud. Judge heard case yesterday and asked both sides to strongly consider another election. Good luck with that

In NYC more info on the mail in problems in Democratic primary. The election board dumped about 34,000 mail in ballots in the mail the DAY BEFORE the election. Obviously not enough time to send back ballot. Judge ruled that ballots received up to 2 days after election be counted. But one person already declared victory, other is bringing challenge to court. So these 2 days of late ballots will probably need to be counted but await resolution of court challenge
For the ballots that weren’t postmarked and therefore not counted, interesting reason. Prepaid envelopes aren’t put through machine that postmarks, so postal workers had to remove ballots from other mail and postmark by hand. Another problem, election commission person went to PO to drop off mail and postal worker gave him an entire cart of ballots - none were postmarked but brought into election headquarters.

[billisonboard]

Aug 8, 2020 12:41:09 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Update on mail in election problems
In Paterson NJ where about 20% mail ballots disqualified. 4 people charged with fraud one of whom is to be on City Council but charged with fraud. Judge heard case yesterday and asked both sides to strongly consider another election. Good luck with that

In NYC more info on the mail in problems in Democratic primary. The election board dumped about 34,000 mail in ballots in the mail the DAY BEFORE the election. Obviously not enough time to send back ballot. Judge ruled that ballots received up to 2 days after election be counted. But one person already declared victory, other is bringing challenge to court. So these 2 days of late ballots will probably need to be counted but await resolution of court challenge
For the ballots that weren’t postmarked and therefore not counted, interesting reason. Prepaid envelopes aren’t put through machine that postmarks, so postal workers had to remove ballots from other mail and postmark by hand. Another problem, election commission person went to PO to drop off mail and postal worker gave him an entire cart of ballots - none were postmarked but brought into election headquarters.

Some obvious problems that need clearing up. I do find the "one person already declared victory" funny. As if it matters.

[billisonboard]

Interesting case: New allegations surface in Paterson election fraud scandal

[mary2029]

So people across the U.S. need mail every day because...

* medication cannot be filled at the doctors, local drug store and cannot be sent Fed Ex and some people get medication every single day.
* businesses are open the 6 days a week that USPS delivers and must have the latest mail every day.  

I didn't say to disband USPS, just to overhaul it. There are options: hold Kaiser more accountable, fix the sorting process (why is it taking so long? can there be better readers/sorters?), or increase the time limit.  The USPS operating revenue for FY 2019 was $71.1 billion, an increase of $518MM even though there was a decrease of 2.6% volume of mail. Even the previous Postmaster General knew that the system needed to be improved:
"However, revenue growth in our package business will never be enough to offset imbalances in the Postal Service's business model, which must be addressed through legislative and regulatory reforms in order to secure a sustainable future," Brennan emphasized.

( link), yet you guys don't?    

Parents won't/aren't sending their schools this upcoming school year/semester due to Covid; each school district is getting creative on how to provide education for the kids. Why can't the USPS get creative? 

[billisonboard]

Aug 8, 2020 13:13:23 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

So people across the U.S. need mail every day because...

* medication cannot be filled at the doctors, local drug store and cannot be sent Fed Ex and some people get medication every single day.
* businesses are open the 6 days a week that USPS delivers and must have the latest mail every day.  

I didn't say to disband USPS, just to overhaul it. There are options: hold Kaiser more accountable, fix the sorting process (why is it taking so long? can there be better readers/sorters?), or increase the time limit.  The USPS operating revenue for FY 2019 was $71.1 billion, an increase of $518MM even though there was a decrease of 2.6% volume of mail. Even the previous Postmaster General knew that the system needed to be improved:
"However, revenue growth in our package business will never be enough to offset imbalances in the Postal Service's business model, which must be addressed through legislative and regulatory reforms in order to secure a sustainable future," Brennan emphasized.

( link), yet you guys don't?    

Parents won't/aren't sending their schools this upcoming school year/semester due to Covid; each school district is getting creative on how to provide education for the kids. Why can't the USPS get creative? 

My concern is that change will come at the expense of service to rural parts of the country.

[jerseygirl]

Aug 8, 2020 13:04:11 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Interesting case: New allegations surface in Paterson election fraud scandal

Interesting our local NJ paper didn’t have these details. Funny - a fraudster named YaYa!
Anyway I’ve done mail in twice and seemed easy and convenient. Once we were out of state so requested absentee ballot and again in recent primaries when state sent mail in ballots to all registered voters. I’ll go to polls in November based on what we’ve already seen.
So wondering if reporters will still reflexively answer ‘ unfounded rumors of election fraud’ every time a Trump tweets about mail in??

[TheOtherMe]

For me to fill a maintenance type prescription it is much more expensive to fill it anywhere but through mail order.  If you want to pay the difference, feel free to let me know and you can reimburse the difference.

If I need a refill on a prescription, the refill needs to go through mail order.  I can fill the first time locally for the same price, but not after that.  Yes, there is a small window for requesting refills before the supply I have runs out.  

It appears you don't understand rural America.  We don't have things like restaurant delivery, etc. because we are too far away from any town of any size.  FedEx and UPS both deliver here, but many of my packages get handed off to the USPS for final delivery.  

While the population of rural American will never come close to that of big cities, we deserve service.  We are citizens of the country and pay taxes.  We might even pay more in taxes than some of the rich people in NYC who are very good at minimizing their taxes.  Much of our income is reported to the IRS, so it does get reported and we do pay our appropriate taxes.  

Farmers and ranchers in rural parts of the country need mail service daily.  They also get vet medications that arrive on dry ice.  

Cities are not the only people in the country.  

There is no way to get "creative" between now and election day.  We have to save the post office for now.  I'm sure there are ways to make it more efficient.  I am not an expert.  Our post office is only open at the counter for 5 hours a day M-F and an hour on Saturday.  The people that live in the older part of the city have PO boxes.  Where I live used to be a farm, so it's on a rural route.  Our boxes are in pods.  There are 24 in my pod.  

When I lived in the mountains of Colorado, we had to have a PO box, but that does not negate the necessity of daily mail delivery.  I could live with no mail on Saturday, but it needs to be delivered in this part of the country daily.

Again, seniors are not being taken in to consideration.  Some do get a lot of mail.  

I don't receive a lot of mail, except junk mail.  It's the packages I want coming daily.  Too many things I have a difficult time finding locally.  

[thyme4change]

Aug 8, 2020 13:40:06 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Aug 8, 2020 13:13:23 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

So people across the U.S. need mail every day because...

* medication cannot be filled at the doctors, local drug store and cannot be sent Fed Ex and some people get medication every single day.
* businesses are open the 6 days a week that USPS delivers and must have the latest mail every day.  

I didn't say to disband USPS, just to overhaul it. There are options: hold Kaiser more accountable, fix the sorting process (why is it taking so long? can there be better readers/sorters?), or increase the time limit.  The USPS operating revenue for FY 2019 was $71.1 billion, an increase of $518MM even though there was a decrease of 2.6% volume of mail. Even the previous Postmaster General knew that the system needed to be improved:
"However, revenue growth in our package business will never be enough to offset imbalances in the Postal Service's business model, which must be addressed through legislative and regulatory reforms in order to secure a sustainable future," Brennan emphasized.

( link), yet you guys don't?    

Parents won't/aren't sending their schools this upcoming school year/semester due to Covid; each school district is getting creative on how to provide education for the kids. Why can't the USPS get creative? 

My concern is that change will come at the expense of service to rural parts of the country.

It does really seem like it will disproportionately damage traditional "red voters" - rural, older, veterans, etc. It may also cost some companies money. Not sure the value of this move.

[teen persuasion]

Aug 8, 2020 13:13:23 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

So people across the U.S. need mail every day because...

* medication cannot be filled at the doctors, local drug store and cannot be sent Fed Ex and some people get medication every single day.
* businesses are open the 6 days a week that USPS delivers and must have the latest mail every day.  

I didn't say to disband USPS, just to overhaul it. There are options: hold Kaiser more accountable, fix the sorting process (why is it taking so long? can there be better readers/sorters?), or increase the time limit.  The USPS operating revenue for FY 2019 was $71.1 billion, an increase of $518MM even though there was a decrease of 2.6% volume of mail. Even the previous Postmaster General knew that the system needed to be improved:
"However, revenue growth in our package business will never be enough to offset imbalances in the Postal Service's business model, which must be addressed through legislative and regulatory reforms in order to secure a sustainable future," Brennan emphasized.

( link), yet you guys don't?    

Parents won't/aren't sending their schools this upcoming school year/semester due to Covid; each school district is getting creative on how to provide education for the kids. Why can't the USPS get creative? 

How about unfix the sorting process?

A number of years back an overhaul of the USPS involved consolidation of distribution centers.  The powers that be decided it made sense to close the distribution center in city #2 in the state, and ship everything to the distribution center in city #3 (thus smaller) in the state.  They also ended the practice of local mail sorting.

So now, a letter I mail at the village PO is trucked to city #3 (in a different region of the state) to the distribution center to be sorted, and then trucked back to my village for delivery.  Previously, we had 2 boxes to self-sort: in town vs out of town. In town was sorted in the PO, out of town went to distribution center in nearby-ish city #2.

So all mail takes 1-2 days longer than previously to be delivered. Assuming it doesn't get lost along the way. The new distribution center has a terrible track record for losing mail. My employer had a payroll packet go AWOL for nearly a month. Checks had to be cancelled and reissued. We began driving to the CPA's office to pick up, rather than trust the mail, extra work for us. We eventually switched to all direct deposit (when the lone employee that still wanted a check retired). We also receive all sorts of mis-sorted and mis-delivered mail at work. If it has a number 9 on it, we might get it, regardless of the actual street name.

At home, we've signed up for email notification of mail scanned for delivery, because we never know when things might arrive or get lost along the way.

[Deleted]

This is something I almost always bring up in conversations about USPS.

For years, USPS generated more revenue than what they spent in operating costs. Billions of dollars more. So far, I’ve been unable to get a good answer when I ask this question, but I’ll ask again anyway.... where did that money go? Why would they not have money set aside to weather hard times, like most companies that generated that kind of money would?

In 2006, they became burdened with the unusual retirement funding requirements that I mentioned in a previous post. Where is that money? I’ve read an article written by a politician whose name I can’t recall, nor can I remember where I read it, but it suggested that the billions of dollars that USPS generated over their expenses in the years (actually decades IIRC) prior to 2006, AND the retirement pre-funding that started in 2006, ALL of it is/has been used by the federal government for other things. That’s the closest thing to an answer that I’ve seen so far, and I haven’t seen anything else to either dispute or verify it.

I think it’s suspect weird to talk so much about them being in the red now, without telling the whole story. A lot of Americans don’t know enough to even ask those questions, because a lot of Americans think USPS is funded with taxpayers money.

I don’t deny that there are real issues with the agency, but it also seems to me that the cash cow is no longer laying the golden eggs (yes, I know that’s mixed up), so now maybe there’s money to be made by privatization. And it’s almost certain that going that route will not serve Americans in the way that USPS was intended and required by federal law to serve our citizens.

[TheOtherMe]

The retirement funding issue has really hurt them financially.

I don't know what retirement system they are under, but I do know that our CSRS fund was "borrowed" in the Iraq war.

[mary2029]

To me, you all are supporting my initial statement... the USPS has become political and if Biden is elected, he cannot touch it and this cannot be fixed. Not once did I say that rural America should not have service... you leaped to that conclusion. Not once did I say that medication should not be delivered... again, you guys leaped to that conclusion. Packages with medication can be marked and probably are marked with DOT numbers; those can be delivered as the regular system demands. Most household do not get medication through the mail because most households do not have prescriptions.
Serve odd-number buildings M, W and Fone day (with packages for all buildings) and even-number buildings T, R and S (including packages for all buildings). Double the cost of direct mail, increase the cost of a letter, get rid of the forever stamp, etc. Businesses morph with the times to serve its customers better, the federal government should too.

[mary2029]

As for ballots, communities generelly give potential voters plenty of time. This year, I sent in my ballot 3 weeks ahead of schedule for the primary. If it is important to the person, it will happen. Unfortunately, voting isn't as important as it should be with typical voting percentages at 61 to 62%.

I applaud Democrats for caring so much. I also wonder what Trump is distracting you from.

[billisonboard]

Aug 8, 2020 17:55:12 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

... Not once did I say that rural America should not have service... you leaped to that conclusion. ...
Serve odd-number buildings M, W and Fone day (with packages for all buildings) and even-number buildings T, R and S (including packages for all buildings). ...

I simply questioned whether you had any familiarity with rural small town America and offered a concern that changes won't properly take into account those areas.

[Deleted]

Aug 8, 2020 17:55:12 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

To me, you all are supporting my initial statement... the USPS has become political and if Biden is elected, he cannot touch it and this cannot be fixed. Not once did I say that rural America should not have service... you leaped to that conclusion. Not once did I say that medication should not be delivered... again, you guys leaped to that conclusion. Packages with medication can be marked and probably are marked with DOT numbers; those can be delivered as the regular system demands. Most household do not get medication through the mail because most households do not have prescriptions.
Serve odd-number buildings M, W and Fone day (with packages for all buildings) and even-number buildings T, R and S (including packages for all buildings). Double the cost of direct mail, increase the cost of a letter, get rid of the forever stamp, etc. Businesses morph with the times to serve its customers better, the federal government should too.

You do realize that the Postal Service can’t just change when they deliver mail to where, nor can they just change their rates, right?

Also, I’ve never run a business, but it seems to me that raising rates at the same time you downgrade the service you provide probably isn’t the best idea ever. 

[mary2029]

Aug 8, 2020 18:20:19 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Aug 8, 2020 17:55:12 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

... Not once did I say that rural America should not have service... you leaped to that conclusion. ...
Serve odd-number buildings M, W and Fone day (with packages for all buildings) and even-number buildings T, R and S (including packages for all buildings). ...

I simply questioned whether you had any familiarity with rural small town America and offered a concern that changes won't properly take into account those areas.

I know. I am just throwing out ideas here... I only have the basic familiarity with the USPS. If we have someone, like a knowledgable Postmaster General, look into this in more detail, it could. But, as it stands now, the USPS will remaim broken like VA, Medicare/Medicade, Social Security, etc., etc., etc., because the government cannot pilot ideas.

[mary2029]

Aug 8, 2020 18:31:51 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

Aug 8, 2020 17:55:12 GMT -5 mary2029 said:

To me, you all are supporting my initial statement... the USPS has become political and if Biden is elected, he cannot touch it and this cannot be fixed. Not once did I say that rural America should not have service... you leaped to that conclusion. Not once did I say that medication should not be delivered... again, you guys leaped to that conclusion. Packages with medication can be marked and probably are marked with DOT numbers; those can be delivered as the regular system demands. Most household do not get medication through the mail because most households do not have prescriptions.
Serve odd-number buildings M, W and Fone day (with packages for all buildings) and even-number buildings T, R and S (including packages for all buildings). Double the cost of direct mail, increase the cost of a letter, get rid of the forever stamp, etc. Businesses morph with the times to serve its customers better, the federal government should too.

You do realize that the Postal Service can’t just change when they deliver mail to where, nor can they just change their rates, right?

Also, I’ve never run a business, but it seems to me that raising rates at the same time you downgrade the service you provide probably isn’t the best idea ever. 

But that IS what is happening... their (meaning our) costs went up when they provided less service in FY 2019. We (meaning US gov.) can continue to slowly increase the temperature for the pot with the frog or we can change it.

[jerseygirl]

Increase rates on packages - Amazon would help
Also not sending so much to retirement costs (but then PO might be like NY NJ IL and CA that owe so much for retiree accounts?)
About 10 yrs ago a push to stop Saturday deliveries was stopped I think due to rural routes
Anyway I think if major numbers of states/voters do mail in ballots it will be a mess. Remember the hanging chads in FL ?

[kadee79]

Due to the mess now happening at the USPS, DH & I will do early voting.  We will be less likely to encounter a crowd there than at our local polling place 1/3 mi. down the road from us.  Since early voting is held in the court house annex, we can also distance much easier there than at our tiny polling place.

I don't trust the mail to get to the proper place on time with this administration & all the mess that is going on.

ETA...And my DH is a Veteran who receives meds by mail..often several times per week and he also gets the refrigerated insulin by mail.  Some of his meds are controlled substances that can NOT be ordered way ahead like some 'person' suggested...they won't refill those until absolutely necessary...meaning the VA needs to know how long it's going to take to deliver them to certain areas.  If there are delays on some of those....they are going to kill people...one way or another, including suicide. 

[jerseygirl]

Maybe if PO only delivered packages on Saturday then could reduce costs by only 5 not 6 days?
We get mostly junk mail , I’ve arranged for Internet only for as many bills as possible
Has there ever been an instance of PO needing to send mail to as many as all voters? 1/3 population?
Maybe send ballots out like SS, 1/4 every week of month??
Not very confident that majority of voters doing mail in will give us a ‘clean’ result in November

[nittanycheme]

I live in a state that does not have any early voting - PA.  I was so happy that they elected to allow mail in voting for two reasons:  1) I work 45 min away and the polls are open 7 to 7 pm so I either had to go into work late, or be very sure to leave on time to be able to vote and 2) because in 2018 we started to get the new voting machines.  I went to my local polling place, where there were maybe 5 people in line, and it took over an hour to vote.  We used the new machines to print out our paper ballots with our votes, which then went into a machine that looked like a giant toter garbage can with a scanner on top.  It probably took 3 minutes for the machine to scan the paper form, and sometimes it would fault and need to be rescanned (you could tell by where the paper exited - if it spit back out at you, it faulted.  if it dropped in the can, you were ok.  I can't imagine what it will be like if the lines were like they were in 2016.  There was only one scanner for my polling place.  And, TBH, I'm not quite sure how they would fit a second one with the setup they have.  A lot of the PA polling places were like that in 2018 - there was so much complaining, and it wasn't even a major election year.

And more people probably get prescriptions in the mail than you think.  I mean, there are a lot of women on birth control pills, thyroid pills, etc., that have routine refills sent through the mail.  I found an article that says that 20% of people get their prescriptions exclusively by mail (National Report Card on Medication Adherence, based on survey information in 2013), and another article in the Washington Post from 2019 where it states that nearly 3 in 5 American adults take at least one prescription drug.

[Cookies Galore]

Aug 12, 2020 11:48:37 GMT -5 nittanycheme said:

I live in a state that does not have any early voting - PA.  I was so happy that they elected to allow mail in voting for two reasons:  1) I work 45 min away and the polls are open 7 to 7 pm so I either had to go into work late, or be very sure to leave on time to be able to vote and 2) because in 2018 we started to get the new voting machines.  I went to my local polling place, where there were maybe 5 people in line, and it took over an hour to vote.  We used the new machines to print out our paper ballots with our votes, which then went into a machine that looked like a giant toter garbage can with a scanner on top.  It probably took 3 minutes for the machine to scan the paper form, and sometimes it would fault and need to be rescanned (you could tell by where the paper exited - if it spit back out at you, it faulted.  if it dropped in the can, you were ok.  I can't imagine what it will be like if the lines were like they were in 2016.  There was only one scanner for my polling place.  And, TBH, I'm not quite sure how they would fit a second one with the setup they have.  A lot of the PA polling places were like that in 2018 - there was so much complaining, and it wasn't even a major election year.

And more people probably get prescriptions in the mail than you think.  I mean, there are a lot of women on birth control pills, thyroid pills, etc., that have routine refills sent through the mail.  I found an article that says that 20% of people get their prescriptions exclusively by mail (National Report Card on Medication Adherence, based on survey information in 2013), and another article in the Washington Post from 2019 where it states that nearly 3 in 5 American adults take at least one prescription drug.

I'm glad that the PA general assembly passed a bipartisan election reform bill last year that allowed for mail-in voting starting this year. How did they know a pandemic was going to hit!?!? 😂
My county got our new ballot machines in time for the primary last year, and while it was a slow process and there was some learning curve, at least the new process started during a municipal election year and not a bigger year. I already requested my ballot for the general because if I can lighten the day of load, why not. I can literally walk my ballot to county voter services since I live just over a mile away. I hope people who are not regular voters are aware of the new paper trail ballot systems (they differ by county) and that straight party voting is gone (compromise to get the no-excuses mail ballots). While it shouldn't matter, 51% of Rs and 48% of Dems voted straight party in 2018. That option helps those of us at the bottom of the ballot (I'm a town council person and a Democratic committee person). I'd rather have mail ballots, though! But yeah, 2020 is a big voter education year and I can't go door-knocking.

As far as mail order prescriptions, myself and my 20-year-old cat use mail order. Me, because my insurance requires maintenance meds go through mail order and my cat because she needs a compounding pharmacy for her meds.

[Deleted]

So what do you all think about the news/articles saying Trump admitted that he’s withholding money from the USPS because they need money to be able to handle the volume from mail in voting? He supposedly said that during an interview on Fox Business I think, Thursday evening.

And Yahoo News had an article saying that postal employees are sounding the alarms about mail sorting machines being removed from facilities. I didn’t actually read that article because I was at work when I came across it and didn’t have time, but countrygirl2 mentioned the machines being removed in another thread, so maybe she has a better source.

I’ve only ever voted in person, so I don’t know what measures are put in place to protect the integrity of voting by mail. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I feel that the signs are pointing toward there being some fuckery in the making regarding the coming Presidential election.

[Deleted]

And I forgot to mention all the talk of mail already been delayed. It’s being reported in the news. It’s even being reported on the news in the city closest to me. 

DBF ordered something online almost a month ago. He’s been tracking the package and it hasn’t moved from Wisconsin, the state it was shipped from, in over 3 weeks now. He finally called and spoke with someone with USPS about it and they told him that the facility in Milwaukee is running a couple of weeks behind. That was over a week ago, and the package still hasn’t moved, so I guess they were right? 

kadee79 has posted about delays in her husbands meds, so the problems aren’t just in one area or one part of the country. I hope I tagged the right person, my memory isn’t what it use to be lol.

This is NOT business as usual for the USPS. Something is going on. But what? And why?

[Tennesseer]

Aug 14, 2020 17:06:13 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

So what do you all think about the news/articles saying Trump admitted that he’s withholding money from the USPS because they need money to be able to handle the volume from mail in voting? He supposedly said that during an interview on Fox Business I think, Thursday evening.

And Yahoo News had an article saying that postal employees are sounding the alarms about mail sorting machines being removed from facilities. I didn’t actually read that article because I was at work when I came across it and didn’t have time, but countrygirl2 mentioned the machines being removed in another thread, so maybe she has a better source.

I’ve only ever voted in person, so I don’t know what measures are put in place to protect the integrity of voting by mail. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I feel that the signs are pointing toward there being some fuckery in the making regarding the coming Presidential election.

PC-there are several posters who live in states where mail-in is the only wat to vote. None of them have ever stated it is a bad way to vote or their states have had problems. dondub , tallguy , and I believe billisonboard live in states with mail-in voting. They might be able to offer you some assurance mail-in voting is okay and safe.

[tallguy]

Aug 14, 2020 17:15:32 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Aug 14, 2020 17:06:13 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

So what do you all think about the news/articles saying Trump admitted that he’s withholding money from the USPS because they need money to be able to handle the volume from mail in voting? He supposedly said that during an interview on Fox Business I think, Thursday evening.

And Yahoo News had an article saying that postal employees are sounding the alarms about mail sorting machines being removed from facilities. I didn’t actually read that article because I was at work when I came across it and didn’t have time, but countrygirl2 mentioned the machines being removed in another thread, so maybe she has a better source.

I’ve only ever voted in person, so I don’t know what measures are put in place to protect the integrity of voting by mail. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I feel that the signs are pointing toward there being some fuckery in the making regarding the coming Presidential election.

PC-there are several posters who live in states where mail-in is the only wat to vote. None of them have ever stated it is a bad way to vote or their states have had problems. dondub , tallguy , and I believe billisonboard live in states with mail-in voting. They might be able to offer you some assurance mail-in voting is okay and safe.

Washington has had vote-by-mail only for several years.  Counties began having the option in 2005.  After all counties except one had opted to VBM, the legislature made it mandatory in 2011.  There are multiple security measures in place to protect the integrity of the process.  Here is a description of that process:  link 

[Tennesseer]

Aug 14, 2020 17:37:19 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Aug 14, 2020 17:15:32 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

PC-there are several posters who live in states where mail-in is the only wat to vote. None of them have ever stated it is a bad way to vote or their states have had problems. dondub , tallguy , and I believe billisonboard live in states with mail-in voting. They might be able to offer you some assurance mail-in voting is okay and safe.

Washington has had vote-by-mail only for several years.  Counties began having the option in 2005.  After all counties except one had opted to VBM, the legislature made it mandatory in 2011.  There are multiple security measures in place to protect the integrity of the process.  Here is a description of that process:  link 

Thanks, Tallguy.