USPS: Good Business, Attack on Besos, or an Exercise in Voter Suppression?

[FloridaBasedFan]

Recently we have seen and heard from the President how the USPS is a mess and losses money on each package delivered. He stated that unless they agree to raise rates by as much as 400% for parcel delivery he will veto any bill authorizing a bailout for them. The President has tweeted repeatedly that the USPS is underwriting Amazon by virtue of their pricing while independent auditors have stated that parcel delivery is in fact, a profitable portion of the USPS business.

On another front the President has been quoted as saying that if voting by mail is allowed nationwide that the Republican Party will never win another election. He repeatedly insists that fraud in the vote will be rampant despite the fact that multiple investigations, including one he commissioned just after he was elected, could find no evidence of fraud in any of our elections. This includes those states conducting them by mail. A number of States have been voting by mail for years and yet there have been no reports of fraud I can remember. Nevada exercised their state right to establish voting by mail for this election and the Republican party has filed suit to block the implementation.

Here we have an upcoming election that is going to transpire in the middle of a pandemic. Polls show that democrats intend to vote by mail by a greater than 2 to 1 margin over republicans. At the same time the President has appointed a new Postmaster General who has no postal experience and immediately instituted a no overtime policy, stating the mail can wait an extra day or whatever for delivery. A slowdown of the mail could have the effect of disenfranchisement for a percentage of the people who are allowed to vote by mail.

Finally, the USPS seems to be the only major industry that is being refused funding during the pandemic. The Fed has dropped interest rates and ensured liquidity for the financial/stock/credit markets. The airline industry has gotten 50 billion in funding and looks to be on the verge of getting another 25 billion in loans at just above zero interest. Hundreds of billions have been given to businesses across the country yet nothing for the one institution that ensures every home in America is served every day no matter how unprofitable or remote.

What gives? Thoughts???

[blah3]

The postal service has been poorly run for a long time and needs a total revamp. Just throwing money at it won’t solve the problem. It’s biggest problem being it’s a federal govt bureaucracy. Stuck with it’s mandates to deliver everywhere 6 days a week and pension issues, it cannot be sustained going forward.
The idea of election fraud is completely separate from the post office business model causing it to lose money

[Greg]

The actual delivery and handling of the USPS regarding votes is a minor issue. There are numerous other issues with voting by mail.

First is counterfeit ballots. If you think Russian interference was a big deal in 2016 imagine Russia, China, and any other number of foreign countries printing up phony ballots. Or even some US group or party. Money is printed with all kinds of measures to prevent this but will these ballots?

Another issue is stolen ballots. Suppose somebody raids mailboxes of ballots?

In her book Hillary Clinton said one reason she loss was men making women vote for Trump. An abused woman could go into a private voting booth and vote for whoever and lie to her husband but that won't happen at a kitchen table. Then you have older folks being intimidated by care givers or those care givers just filling out the ballots for them.

Then there are ballots mailed out to dead or moved people. These are ripe for abuse.

Absentee ballots have some of thee same issues but at lease you have to request it and identify yourself in some way. The number is also limited so verification is a lot more possible.

[stevez51]

Recently we have seen and heard from the President how the USPS is a mess and losses money on each package delivered. He stated that unless they agree to raise rates by as much as 400% for parcel delivery he will veto any bill authorizing a bailout for them. The President has tweeted repeatedly that the USPS is underwriting Amazon by virtue of their pricing while independent auditors have stated that parcel delivery is in fact, a profitable portion of the USPS business.

On another front the President has been quoted as saying that if voting by mail is allowed nationwide that the Republican Party will never win another election. He repeatedly insists that fraud in the vote will be rampant despite the fact that multiple investigations, including one he commissioned just after he was elected, could find no evidence of fraud in any of our elections. This includes those states conducting them by mail. A number of States have been voting by mail for years and yet there have been no reports of fraud I can remember. Nevada exercised their state right to establish voting by mail for this election and the Republican party has filed suit to block the implementation.

Here we have an upcoming election that is going to transpire in the middle of a pandemic. Polls show that democrats intend to vote by mail by a greater than 2 to 1 margin over republicans. At the same time the President has appointed a new Postmaster General who has no postal experience and immediately instituted a no overtime policy, stating the mail can wait an extra day or whatever for delivery. A slowdown of the mail could have the effect of disenfranchisement for a percentage of the people who are allowed to vote by mail.

Finally, the USPS seems to be the only major industry that is being refused funding during the pandemic. The Fed has dropped interest rates and ensured liquidity for the financial/stock/credit markets. The airline industry has gotten 50 billion in funding and looks to be on the verge of getting another 25 billion in loans at just above zero interest. Hundreds of billions have been given to businesses across the country yet nothing for the one institution that ensures every home in America is served every day no matter how unprofitable or remote.

What gives? Thoughts???

The Post Office has been very busy during the pandemic with everyone ordering online for delivery. It may have slowed down once people were allowed out. Its their past ways that are costing them.

[FloridaBasedFan]

The postal service has been poorly run for a long time and needs a total revamp. Just throwing money at it won’t solve the problem. It’s biggest problem being it’s a federal govt bureaucracy. Stuck with it’s mandates to deliver everywhere 6 days a week and pension issues, it cannot be sustained going forward.
The idea of election fraud is completely separate from the post office business model causing it to lose money

Pension issues...Aren't the pension funding requirements ungodly in comparison to the average business in the country? Ive asked a letter carrier or two whats the deal (not that they are experts by any means) but both answered without hesitation that the funding requirements for their retirement system were causing the money issues.

[MyTurn]

The actual delivery and handling of the USPS regarding votes is a minor issue. There are numerous other issues with voting by mail.

First is counterfeit ballots. If you think Russian interference was a big deal in 2016 imagine Russia, China, and any other number of foreign countries printing up phony ballots. Or even some US group or party. Money is printed with all kinds of measures to prevent this but will these ballots?

Another issue is stolen ballots. Suppose somebody raids mailboxes of ballots?

In her book Hillary Clinton said one reason she loss was men making women vote for Trump. An abused woman could go into a private voting booth and vote for whoever and lie to her husband but that won't happen at a kitchen table. Then you have older folks being intimidated by care givers or those care givers just filling out the ballots for them.

Then there are ballots mailed out to dead or moved people. These are ripe for abuse.

Absentee ballots have some of thee same issues but at lease you have to request it and identify yourself in some way. The number is also limited so verification is a lot more possible.

There seems to be a lot of concern that there is going to be a large scale fraud with paper ballots but there seems to be no concern with electronic voting machines. Why is that? It has been shown that they are vulnerable to cyber attacks with little effort. Why would a foreign country or any organization prefer to alter an election with verifiable paper trails rather than changing votes electronically where there is no way to verify the results have been changed?

[FloridaBasedFan]

The actual delivery and handling of the USPS regarding votes is a minor issue. There are numerous other issues with voting by mail.

First is counterfeit ballots. If you think Russian interference was a big deal in 2016 imagine Russia, China, and any other number of foreign countries printing up phony ballots. Or even some US group or party. Money is printed with all kinds of measures to prevent this but will these ballots?

Another issue is stolen ballots. Suppose somebody raids mailboxes of ballots?

Then there are ballots mailed out to dead or moved people. These are ripe for abuse.

Absentee ballots have some of thee same issues but at lease you have to request it and identify yourself in some way. The number is also limited so verification is a lot more possible.

There are what, 5 states that do voting by mail as a matter of policy, Some having done so for years without incident. Why haven't these states experienced the problems you listed? I'm every bit as concerned about the hacking of voting machines as I am about counterfeit ballots. Again, I seem to remember different voting areas reporting attempts at hacking the last election. It would seem much "cleaner" for a foreign government or their proxy to attempt a hack rather than replacing physical ballots, counterfeiting, or physically stealing ballots.

Personally, I believe in in person voting with advance voting available. Plenty of locations and ample time to cast a vote. Paper ballots that back up the electronic systems being used. I dont go for single day voting with requirements to stand in line for hours and hours in order to vote. I believe we need to make voting as available to the population as possible.

[blah3]

The Post Office has been very busy during the pandemic with everyone ordering online for delivery. It may have slowed down once people were allowed out. Its their past ways that are costing them.

Normal mail is way down during the pandemic and Amazon doesn’t pay enough per parcel to save the post office

[blah3]

There are what, 5 states that do voting by mail as a matter of policy, Some having done so for years without incident. Why haven't these states experienced the problems you listed? I'm every bit as concerned about the hacking of voting machines as I am about counterfeit ballots. Again, I seem to remember different voting areas reporting attempts at hacking the last election. It would seem much "cleaner" for a foreign government or their proxy to attempt a hack rather than replacing physical ballots, counterfeiting, or physically stealing ballots.

Personally, I believe in in person voting with advance voting available. Plenty of locations and ample time to cast a vote. Paper ballots that back up the electronic systems being used. I dont go for single day voting with requirements to stand in line for hours and hours in order to vote. I believe we need to make voting as available to the population as possible.

It’s not the same. The proposals now are to just mail out ballots to everyone without checking if they are even still valid to vote in that area or even alive.

[FloridaBasedFan]

It’s not the same. The proposals now are to just mail out ballots to everyone without checking if they are even still valid to vote in that area or even alive.

I would not be in favor of that at all IF that were the case. Nevada is modeling their vote by mail operation after the state of Washington who has conducted vote by mail for years without issues. Nevada will use the same safeguards as Washington yet the RNC has filed suit to block the law.

[blah3]

I would not be in favor of that at all IF that were the case. Nevada is modeling their vote by mail operation after the state of Washington who has conducted vote by mail for years without issues. Nevada will use the same safeguards as Washington yet the RNC has filed suit to block the law.

President Trump’s campaign and other Republican groups sued to block Nevada from implementing a new election plan that includes automatically mailing ballots to all active registered voters this November, representing the GOP’s latest pushback against expanding voting by mail during the pandemic.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj...an-11596609186

[FloridaBasedFan]

Normal mail is way down during the pandemic and Amazon doesn’t pay enough per parcel to save the post office

Amazon is the lowest paying bulk parcel shipping customer of the USPS. They paid $2 per package according to the financial report submitted to and accepted by the treasury of the US in 2017 (they are required to file annually). For this price Amazon must wrap, palletize, sort by zip, and deliver each parcel to the closest one of 20 USPS distribution centers. The end result of this parcel along with other parcel contracts was n estimated 7 Billion in profit. Again, these figures are according to the US Treasury Dept. in 2017. It would seem that the only people who are accusing the USPS of under pricing is Fed Ex and UPS because they dont have the infrastructure to compete price wise. Now federal law stipulates that the USPS must account for the cost of that infrastructure when pricing their contracts (common plus institutional costs). The absolute minimum the USPS can charge a customer is 5.5% by federal law. The treasury has accepted the figure of 22% as the profit margin on Amazon.