To the Editor:
Before I address the situation with USPS, I must first respond to one comment in Martin’s editorial last week regarding a plea from Drudge for fairness and civility in the coming election. Martin’s take was that VP nominee Kamala Harris’ question of now-Justice Kavanaugh regarding whether he knew of any, “… laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body," applied to allegations of sexual misconduct in his high school years. That was not the point of Harris' question. She was illustrating that there are no laws regarding men’s bodies, but there are many regarding women’s bodies. Even if she were making a comment about his past sexual behavior, it would not make her a “political slut,” Martin. It was a legitimate issue in Kavanaugh's nomination process for a lifetime appointment.. If a man had asked the same question, you would not have called him the same vile sexually-charged name.
California has an established a mail-in vote program, but, as with all states, we rely upon the USPS, a constitutionally-mandated agency, to actually deliver that mail. Trump claims that the mail-in process is rife with widespread fraud, but cannot provide proof of that fact because it isn't so. He likely can't stop the mail-in process nationwide, so he implemented his long-time objective to degrade the USPS delivery system from within.
Trump anointed the appointment of a person with no experience in the field to be postmaster general (Louis DeJoy, a long-time political donor) who has obediently and quietly (until he was outted by some postal workers) set about slowing the processing of mail, including reducing personnel and overtime to handle the increase in mail-in voting and mail in general, removing and dismantling sorting machines that speed up delivery, and deciding that ballots will be treated not as first-class mail, but as bulk mail. Getting your ballot to you will not be a priority. Returning your ballot timely to the Elections Department for counting will also not be a priority. Delays also apply to Social Security checks, medications, pension checks, and any other mail that is important to you. All this as "cost-saving measures" with "unintended consequences" DeJoy says, just before a national election.
Trump urges in-person voting; in the middle of a pandemic, your vote or your health. If you stay home rather than risk voting in person, or your ballot doesn't get delivered on time, blame USPS. He fears he may lose the election with easier and increased voting (after all, he didn't win the popular vote last time), and wants the chance to call it "rigged." We know from the last three-and-a-half years that any undertaking that does not go his way is a "fake," a “hoax,” “unfair, ”or “stolen” from him. This self-pitying trait is distinctly un-American.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump actually admitted his game plan: "Now they need that money [Covid-19 recovery funds] in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.” Every citizen should be concerned. This is where the American electorate is supposed to step in and correct such a mortal assault on democracy.
Kelly Scoles Fillmore, Ca