Madison Contreras 

Writer

With the 2020 presidential election right around the corner, people across the nation are looking for safe ways to vote amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Brookings Institution reported that the percentage for mail-in and absentee voters is expected to rise by 20% from the August estimation of 33% by Nov. 3. 

Due to the high volume in absentee and mail-in ballots, many states adjusted their voting process to assume a position that will be amenable to its citizens.

Five states have undertook a state-wide mail-in ballot process, five states will send ballots or ballot applications though leave the option to vote in person, 35 states, including Oklahoma, have the option to request a mail-in ballot and the remaining five states must have a legal excuse to be able to participate in mail-in voting.

As the election season has led to all postal operations being under scrutiny for their services, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been catching national headlines throughout the course of the summer.

Questions of authority and range of service that dates back to when the service was established, the USPS became an independent entity within the executive branch in 1971 after having been established under the Second Continental Congress in 1775.

Concurrently, this was also when the USPS was given the obligation of universal service, the act of delivering mail to, as practicable, the entire nation.

Since then, the Postal Service has had 75 Postmaster Generals, or acting CEO’s, including, recently appointed, Louis DeJoy.

Being the first Postmaster General in 28 years to not have a history at the agency, DeJoy was appointed Postmaster in June through a bipartisan commission formed by the USPS’ governing board.

After many years of financial struggling, the USPS incurred a $160.9 billion dollar debt as of Aug. 2020, according to the Washington Post.

As the agency receives no direct taxpayer’s funds and the USPS budget relies on revenue from stamps and other service fees, the Postal Service has operated at a loss since 2007, as stated by Brookings Institution.

While cost-cutting actions were being taken to counter the insurmountable debt, the policy maker remains unclear and highly controversial.

Despite the actuality behind whether or not Dejoy implemented the following policies, these were carried out after he took his position as Postmaster General: the redistribution and/or removal of mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes, the alteration to retail and delivery schedules and the discontinuation of late or extra mail trips, among other changes.

Following backlash from communities across the US towards Dejoy making changes to the Postal Service, the Postmaster postponed all alterations until after the Nov. 3 election.

Though, this did not appease 21 Democratic states, along with many other advocacy groups including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as multiple lawsuits were filed against the agency on the stance that DeJoy did not follow proper federal law procedures and acted outside of his authority when implementing changes.

In the five months DeJoy has been acting CEO of the USPS, the service has had eight lawsuits ruled against them on the basis that illegal changes to the Postal Service were made that will disrupt the 2020 presidential election.

On the whole, as these changes were made to oppose the ever growing debt, the USPS has been given the opportunity of multiple aides since the beginning of the pandemic.

In March of 2020, when the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was passed, a miscellaneous provision included operating expenses for the USPS during the time of the pandemic.

Sourced from Congress.gov, H.R.748 Sec. 6001 passed an emergency budget of $10 billion dollars that, if due to COVID-19, the Postal Service could borrow if they would not be able to fund their operations, though the money was strictly not to be used to lessen the debt accumulated by the agency.

Additionally, House Democrats have passed the Moving Forward Act as of July.

The Moving Forward Act, or H.R.2, includes a $25 billion dollar distribution to the US Postal Service with the main focus being to fund purchases for a new vehicle fleet that will protect carriers from harsh climates.

Despite the bill passing the House, it must still pass the predominantly-Republican Senate and the president before the money will be in use. 

Currently, after demands from multiple parties for an investigation for the integrity of the Postal Service, the USPS’s inspector general opened an investigation airing around the agency’s failure to update over one million addresses before a national election.

Though allegations against the Postal Service have become widely controversial, assertions against the Postmaster General began shortly before the investigations surrounding the USPS opened.

After questions arose surrounding DeJoy’s motives at the Postal Service, an investigation led by the House Oversight Committee discovered evidence against the newly appointed Postmaster.

Before becoming acting CEO of the USPS, DeJoy had sold New Breed Logistics, a company he had once owned and ran, in 2014.

Allegedly, DeJoy had pressured his employees to donate to GOP candidates and would repay them with a bonus on their check, a federally illegal act, as stated by USA Today.

A spokesperson for DeJoy mentioned he did not know his employees felt pressure to donate but that he only encouraged them to be active in their communities.

Nevertheless, according to a Washington Post review of campaign finance documents between 2000 and 2014 when DeJoy was head of New Breed, the employees had collectively donated at least one million dollars to GOP candidates.

The five-year statute of limitations protects DeJoy from federal prison, and the lack of an immediate Federal Election Commission quorum writes off any federal civil charges he may have, but as the company was based in North Carolina, where there are no statute of limitation laws, the investigation surrounding donation reimbursement allegations continues.

Whether the allegations and investigations being held lead to the downfall of the United States Postal Service or not, one thing is for certain — voting in the 2020 election on Nov. 3 will determine more than the president of the country.