USPS Tried to Deliver This Piece for 14 Years; Give Them Our Ballots!?
The U.S. Postal Service cannot be trusted to handle millions of mail-in ballots for the November 3 presidential election. Evidence below.
One of my favorite columnists wrote recently that he has no real concerns with the idea of increased voting by mail (VBM). I do not share his confidence in the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to handle such an uptick of VBM ballots, no matter how loudly radical leftist voices clamor for it.
Yes, I have personal experiences – exhibits I’ll call them – upon which to build my case:
Exhibit A: In early August, an AFA Journal was returned to our offices by the USPS because it had been unable to deliver it to our subscriber. The attached label carried a July 30, 2020 date and the explanation for non-delivery: “Unable to Forward.” With that recent date, I knew they’d been trying and trying to deliver it.
However, the most striking thing in this instance is how long the USPS had been conscientiously trying to deliver this magazine – 14 years! Yep, you read that right. In August 2020, the USPS returned an August 2006 issue of AFA Journal! You have to give them an A for effort – right? Fourteen years is a long time to try to deliver one little magazine.
And we have leftist socialists demanding that we trust this slow, inefficient machine to deliver ballots in a timely manner?
Exhibit B: For decades, I subscribed to my weekly hometown newspaper. For decades, the USPS was consistently maddening in delivery. It might take two days, and it might take ten days for the paper to travel 160 miles. The P.O. clerks always assured me that it should take no more than three days – but in real life, the average delivery time was about one week. In fact, the papers frequently arrived out of order, e.g. the May 10 issue would appear in my box on May 13, and then the May 3 issue would appear on May 15.
And we want this organization to throw our fall elections into absolute long-term chaos? Really?
Exhibit C: This one goes back a few years, but it still raises my blood pressure when I recall it. I once paid a late fee to my local utilities service because it took the USPS five business days to deliver my check from my neighborhood post office to the downtown address two miles away.
I rest my case. And I know I’m not alone in this frustration – and fear – of a VBM election.
The Heritage Foundation has warned that VBM endangers the integrity of elections. A May report revealed that the foundation had documented 1,285 proven instances of voter fraud in the prior four years. (No, not all were VBM.)
Nonetheless, the same report avers unequivocally that VBM makes it easier to “commit fraud, intimidate voters, and destroy the protections of the secret ballot. … Ballots can be lost, disqualified, and even stolen.”
A primer by an inside fraud specialist was documented by Carly Ortiz-Lytle in the Washington Examiner. “Democratic operative says he’s been committing voter fraud for decades and warns ‘war coming November 3rd over this stuff’” – that was Ortiz-Lytle’s title. The operative told her he’s a Bernie Sanders supporter, and he blew the whistle prior to fall elections in hopes that officials will increase security at the polls.
He said printed ballots have no security features and are easy to photocopy. Regarding VBM, he implicated postal workers, saying it is not uncommon for a political activist at the post office to trash VBM ballots when he knows the vast majority will be votes for the candidate he opposes.
In an August 3 post, Hans von Spakovsky, Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow, stated, “Mail-in ballots are the ballots most vulnerable to being altered, stolen, or forged.” He cited a recent Paterson, New Jersey, municipal election done totally by VBM. Four city residents, including a councilman and a councilman-elect, have been charged with criminal voter fraud.
He cited other common fraudulent or suspect practices:
- Signatures don’t match voter signature on file.
- It takes months to count ballots in state or local elections (as in New York).
- VBM ballots miscarried or not delivered (recently in Wisconsin and Maryland).
- USPS doesn’t postmark valid ballots by the deadline.
- More time is required to count ballots, especially in national elections.
No one I know desires that those most vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus or those quarantined should be unable to vote. Provision must be made for them. But for the vast majority of us (including this 75-year-old), it will be totally safe to go the polls. I’ll be masked, avoiding close contact with others, showing my valid ID, marking my ballot, and proudly applying my “I Voted” sticker to wear for the rest of the day.
The over-the-top pressure from socialist elitists for VBM is an overt attempt to throw the election into such confusion as to somehow give them one last gasp at wresting control from the majority of solid, hard-working, patriotic, sane, conservative Americans.
But then, I remember – the Heritage Foundation also said voter fraud is not a partisan issue with both Democrats and Republicans found criminally guilty in various cases. Does that mean our election could be determined by which party cheats the most and the best (or worst)?
Just food for thought about VBM … from a 30-year victim of the USPS capacity for inefficiency. See you at the polls.
