US Postal Service's struggles have real-world impacts
Empty mail boxes, uncounted ballots, late medication, missed rent payments–those are among the real-world impacts of the struggles of the U.S. Postal Service.
Many of those issues, documented this summer across the USA TODAY Network, predate the feverish debate about whether mail is delayed by the Postal Service's efforts to cut overtime, remove mail processing equipment and even move blue collection boxes.
Top Democrats allege the Trump administration is kneecapping the Postal Service to hamper mail-in and absentee voting, which surged this spring amid the coronavirus pandemic. In November, more supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Bid en are likely to vote by mail.
The Postal Service's long-standing financial issues have been worsened by the pandemic.
“The U.S. Postal Service, like other delivery companies, has experienced some temporary service disruptions in a few locations domestically due to the COVID- 19 pandemic,” spokesman Dave Partenheimer acknowledged in an email to USA TODAY.
Post master General Louis DeJoy said he will pause—but not roll back—cost-cutting moves until after the election. He is scheduled to testify about the issue before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee on Friday.
What problems with mail service are people complaining about?
Accounts of mail delays have been documented across the country in recent weeks by the USA TODAY Network. One of the most common complaints: Mail is simply not delivered for days on end.
In Louisville, Kentucky, Caleb Jenkins said he did not receive anything for six days straight in July .“With medical bills and all those type of things coming in the mail, it's been really frustrating,” he said.
In rural California, Tracey Legate- Dumke said in a Facebook group that she went about a month without mail this summer.
Dianna Burns wrote in the same group that her rent was late in June because her mail carrier didn't pick up her mail for four days. She took the envelope to the post office and complained. “I also complained that I don't get my mail, or it gets to me two weeks after it was sent out,” she wrote.
Business owners and people who rely on mailorder medications raised similar issues.
For about a decade, Nashville small business owner Cybelle Elena has depended on the Postal Service to deliver her products – clothing and accessories. Usually, it's “extremely reliable ,” she said, but during the pandemic, packages have been delayed days or even weeks. Some never arrive.
Business is way up after she began producing masks, but she spends more time and money helping customers who haven' t received their orders.
In California, Richard Valdez–a Vietnam veteran and former state commander of Disabled American Veterans– said he's still waiting for medications he ordered from the Department of Veterans Affairs on July 25. They typically arrive within three or four days, he said.
Delays in some areas spur red the VA to switch to other carriers, said Randy Reese, executive director of Disabled American Veterans' Washington headquarters.