Consider This from NPR - What's Changing At The Postal Service, And What It Could Mean For 2020

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

More Americans are expected to vote by mail this year than ever before. But President Trump has called the U.S. Postal Service "a joke," and now a major GOP donor runs the organization. A USPS employee tells NPR's Noel King that changes from the new Postmaster General are making her job harder.And NPR's Pam Fessler reports that secure drop boxes for ballots could help some states rely less on the mail.If you want to hear NPR's latest coverage on Joe Biden's pick for Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris, the NPR Politics Podcast will have a new episode on Tuesday evening — listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. NPR's Up First will have more Wednesday morning — also on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Find and support your local public radio station.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, everybody, before we get started, just want to say a lot of this episode is about the 2020 election. And obviously, today, Tuesday, just as we were finishing the episode, there was some big news on that front. So if you want to hear more of NPR's coverage later this evening, or on Wednesday morning of Joe Biden's choice for Vice President Senator Kamala Harris, you can check out the NPR Politics Podcast or NPR's Up First. They will have you covered and there are links to those shows in our episode notes. Okay, here's our show. This fall, more than three quarters of Americans will be eligible to vote by mail. That's according to a new analysis by the New York Times. And the thing is, this is more than any other time in history,

because a lot of states have expanded the ability to vote by mail during the pandemic, and other states already had mail-in voting. But many of these ballots aren't going to get where they need to go without the U.S. Postal Service. So as we're coming into, you know, arguably the most anticipated election of a century, we have everybody on edge. Kim Wyman is a Republican and the Secretary of State in Washington state, where all elections have been 100% vote by mail

for nearly a decade. And my job as Secretary of State is to calm the waters and make sure that people have confidence that the election is well run. Even in her state, a place where mail-in voting is the norm, and we have to say the evidence shows reliable and safe from any widespread fraud. Wyman told NPR this month she's worried about the. And big changes the Trump administration is making to the Postal Service. I'm very concerned that delays in postal delivery is going to have a

negative effect on absentee ballots and vote by mail elections. And one of the things that needs to happen is states need to have the capacity and the capability to deal with these changes. Coming up, what is happening at the Postal Service and why? Plus, one idea some states are trying when it comes time to vote. This is Consider This from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers. It's Tuesday, August 11th. This message comes from NPR sponsor HBO.

The HBO documentary Yusuf Hawken's Storm Over Brooklyn, takes a closer look at the tragedy that's more relevant now than ever. Watch it Wednesday, August 12th at 9 p.m. on HBO and stream it on HBO Max. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Integrative Therapeutics, creator of Physician's Elemental Diet, a medical food developed by clinicians for the dietary management of IBS, IBD, and SIBO under the supervision of a physician. Okay, so the first thing to know is that the U.S. Postal Service is massive. In 2019, it had almost a half a million career employees and 31,000 post offices. That's more than twice

the number of McDonald's. The service takes in tens of billions of dollars each year. And if it were a private company, it would rank in the top 50 of the Fortune 500. And yeah, with any organization that huge, it's not going to be perfect. The Postal Service is a joke because they're handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies. President Trump has said repeatedly the Postal Service is losing money because it delivers packages for these companies below cost. But actually, the Postal Service makes money on package deliveries. That's been a growing share of its revenue in recent years. We are at the beginning of a transformative process. Our goal is to change and improve the Postal Service.

Still, this man, the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, is making some big changes. For a little background, we should say DeJoy has contributed millions of dollars to campaigns for President Trump and other Republicans since 2016. And like the president, he is from New York. He used to run a logistics company. My first day on the job as Postmaster General was June 15. DeJoy started this summer, after the last Postmaster General retired at the beginning of the year. DeJoy made his first public remarks this past Friday. Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume,

a broken business model, and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues. DeJoy said the USPS lost almost $9 billion last year, and could be $11 billion this year. But critics would say it's wrong to think about the U.S. Postal Service like a for-profit business that loses money. That it's more or less another part of the federal government. Still, it is true the Postal Service is not doing great financially. And that was true long before President Trump took office. The reason has less to do with Amazon and more to do with fewer people sending letters.

And a 2006 law that required the Postal Service to fund some employee retirement benefits ahead of time. I asked members of Congress to take action on this one legislated burdensome issue that will actually make a difference. But DeJoy isn't waiting for Congress to make all the changes he wants to make. He's already reassigned or displaced 23 postal executives, changed delivery policies, banned overtime. Yes, we are beginning to see those changes and how it is impacting the mail. Kimberly Carroll is a mail carrier from Waterloo, Iowa. She's also president of the state's postal

workers union. She told my colleague Noelle King what those changes look like. Mail is beginning to pile up in our offices and we're seeing equipment being removed. So we are beginning to see the impact of those changes. Curious, I hadn't heard about this one, equipment being removed. What equipment? The sorting equipment that we use to process mail for delivery. In Iowa, we are losing machines and they are already in Waterloo. We're losing one of those machines. So that also hinders our ability to process mail in the way that we had in the past. Sure. Sounds like it would. You've been a postal worker for 30 years. How do you feel about Louis DeJoy? I am not a fan. I grew up in a culture of service where every piece was to be delivered every day. And his policies, although they've only been in place for a few weeks, are now affecting the way that we do

business and not allowing us to deliver every piece every day as we've done in the past. Do you get the impression that your feelings about him are shared broadly among postal workers? Do people agree with you? Yes, all across the country. We are trying to activate people all across the country and notify the public, because my opinion is that the PMG is trying to circumvent the rules that have been set in place to safeguard the public by making changes that don't require public comment, but have the same impact as closing offices and or changing delivery standards. And so this is a way to avoid that kind of public comment. And we're trying to make sure that the

public understands that they need to make comment. Is the Postal Service equipped to handle this upcoming election? Yes. Keep in mind, the Postal Service has been in place for 200 years. We have a history of being able to process mail, and we've been developing and perfecting our methods for all that time. So although the Postmaster General is taking actions that are starting to impact that by having preparation in advance of these elections, we still have the system that will do that. Last question for you real quick. The Postal Service is dealing with financial pressures and the argument is, you know, these are cost-cutting measures. We need them. What do you say to that? Well, unfortunately, I don't see this as cost-saving measures. I see this as a way to undermine the public confidence in the mail service. So it's not saving costs. We're spending more time trying to implement these policy changes, and it's costing more over time.

That was Kimberly Carroll in Waterloo, Iowa, talking to my colleague Noelle King. If the mail could be slower this year, what does that mean for voting? One expert told NPR this week, you should request your ballot right now to make sure you get the process started and finish early if you can. More and more people will do that the closer it gets to election day. Some states make that process easier, like in Washington state, where voters can print their ballot out at home. That way they don't have to wait for one in the mail. When it comes to sending your ballot back, there is an alternative that's becoming more popular. Drop boxes, where voters can deposit their ballots to be collected by election officials.

Here's NPR's Pam Fessler on that. A steady stream of voters in Detroit, Michigan last week approached a red, white, and blue metal box right outside the city's main election office. The box looked a little like a high-tech trash can or recycling bin. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Instead, it was one of several hundred ballot drop boxes located across the state. More than a million Michigan voters decided to cast absentee ballots in the primary rather than go to the polls. But many, like Elizabeth Dandridge, didn't want to

count on the post office to deliver those ballots. I want to be sure that it was collected in the box. Sometimes the mail's delayed. I'm waiting on packages where people have sent me over two weeks ago and they haven't come. And it's a growing concern as the U.S. prepares for a flood of absentee and mail-in voting in November. Many election officials are encouraging voters to use drop boxes instead to make sure their ballots don't arrive too late to be counted. That's already happened to tens of thousands of ballots this year. Connecticut's using 200 new drop boxes. Secretary of State Denise Merrill admits the state was somewhat overwhelmed by a surge in requests for mail-in ballots, and even a week ago, local election offices were still trying to fill those requests.

There's a lot of confusion just at the moment about when the ballots got mailed, to whom, when they're going to arrive. It's going to be very tight, and the ballot boxes play an increasingly important role in all this because, you know, you shave off two, three, four, maybe five days from when you mail a ballot. But the boxes are controversial. A couple of Connecticut towns complained that having them outside available to voters 24-7 isn't safe, even though many are protected with security cameras. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign have filed suit to block Pennsylvania from using such boxes in November, arguing they could increase the chances for fraud. Dropbox supporters dismiss such concerns as completely unfounded. They note that dropboxes

have been used in some states for decades without problems. Kristen Clark of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told senators the boxes are an important and convenient option for voters. They complement the limited postal box offices that are available in communities and are just critical to providing access this season. Access for whom isn't clear. Researchers have found that drop boxes can boost turnout overall, but there's no evidence, at least so far, that one party benefits more than the other. Still, Larry Olson of LaserFab, a company in Washington state that makes the boxes, says demand's definitely on the rise. I took a couple orders today. And he's confident their boxes are far more secure than the average mailbox. He says there are multiple features

to prevent tampering. The boxes are also made of steel and weigh about 600 pounds. And they're bolted to the ground, so it's not really something anybody can move easily. In fact, he notes that an SUV plowed into one of them in Washington state last year. Both the box and contents survived. That was NPR's Pam Fessler. Additional reporting in this episode from our colleagues at All Things Considered and Morning Edition and from NPR's Miles Parks. And we had editing help from Phil Ewing. For more news, download the NPR One app or listen to your local public radio station. Supporting that station makes this podcast possible.

I'm Kelly McEvers. We'll be back with more tomorrow. Back in the day, as Netflix began to gain popularity, its rival Blockbuster was looking for an edge. At one point, the investors were asking Blockbuster to sell jeans in the store. Yeah, you just imagine these like older investors being like, you know what the kids want? They want jeans. You get a Tom Cruise movie and some stonewashed jeans.

The downfall of Blockbuster and the rise of Netflix. Listen to It's Been a Minute from NPR.