Editorial: Mail service critical to 2020 elections, Trump needs to end irresponsible attacks
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020 -- As state and local election boards have been working to expand voting opportunities and shore up absentee voting by mail to accommodate our life-saving need to be socially distant, President Donald Trump's postal service is making critical voting by mail and absentee voting less reliable. That is the REAL voter fraud here - not the phony scenarios the president has conjured up.
Posted — UpdatedHe ordered a halt to paying postal workers the overtime so mail carriers could complete their daily rounds. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, postal package volume has nearly doubled – exacerbating the opportunities for Trump to find ways to exploit his feud with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s top executive and owner of The Washington Post. It has caused significant delays in deliveries of letters and packages.
In the midst of his actions that effectively are dismantling the postal service, that service has never been more critical to the nation and especially with the approach of the national election.
As state and local election boards have been working to expand voting opportunities and shore up absentee voting by mail to accommodate our life-saving need to be socially distant, Trump’s postal service is making critical voting by mail and absentee voting less reliable. That is the REAL voter fraud here – not the phony scenarios the president has conjured up.
Timely delivery of absentee mail-in ballots is critical. Properly completed ballots must be returned to the county board of elections no later than 5 p.m. on Election Day (Nov. 3), according to state law. Ballots received after that will only be counted if they arrive by 5 p.m. on the third day (Nov. 6) after the election and are postmarked on or before Election Day.
Assuring the election is conducted fairly and every proper ballot is counted is not a simple task. North Carolina election officials work hard at it and, for the greatest part, succeed. When outside influences seek to undercut election integrity, as some Republican operatives sought to do in the 9th Congressional District 2018 campaign, they are exposed.
That admonition from Osteen, appointed to the court by President George W. Bush, also applies to the president and the U.S. Postal Service.
Rather than sabotaging mail delivery at a time when it is most critical to our democracy and looking for ways to discredit an election, President Trump – and our representatives in the Senate and U.S. House -- should be looking at ways to reinforce the Postal Service and provide the resources to assure mail is handled and delivered in in an expeditious manner.
Voting matters. During the pandemic more, not less, must be done to assure all who can cast ballots are able to do so.
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