President Trump continues unsubstantiated attacks on Postal Service workers’ ability to deliver ballots in the appropriate time to be counted. These claims on the aptness of the United States Postal Service by President Trump are causing concern and a widespread decline of confidence in the process among American citizens.
What We Know
- The process of voting-by-mail is not new, although, in recent months, the process has received more coverage in response to the convenience of the method due to growing COVID-19 concerns. There are two types of mail balloting methods: absentee voting or voting by mail.
- Absentee voting is typically used in every state and specifically refers to those who cannot make it to their respective voting locations on Election Day. In comparison, voting-by-mail refers to all ballots that are sent through the mail, which does include absentee ballots but also includes mail from all-mail voting states. Colorado, Hawaii, and Oregon are only some of the few states that participate in all-mail voting.
- Both methods of voting by mail are regulated by anti-fraud protections built into the process alongside legislative protections. Legislative protections state that any purposeful election fraud by mail would result in a fine or prison time.
“This is going to be the greatest election disaster in history.”
-President Donald Trump on voting-by-mail
- President Trump’s recent slanderous attacks on voting-by-mail have little evidence behind them. These attacks have caused the USPS to release a statement announcing, “The Postal Service has ample capacity to adjust our nationwide processing and delivery network to meet projected Election and Political Mail volume,” per CNN.
- While the statement from the USPS serves to control the recent concerns about fraudulent voting, suspicion continues to arise specifically due to the new Postmaster General and Trump donor, Louis DeJoy. After assuming his position only a month ago, Dejoy has established significant cost-cutting measures, ultimately causing mail backups.
According to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Trump is trying to suppress the legitimacy of the election with his attacks on voting-by-mail. COVID-19 concerns and precautions will most likely continue to be politicized, as seen in the current 2020 election process.
