[EL] Postal Service Issues

Sat Aug 15 11:40:02 PDT 2020

Did the postal system not also announce this week it was going to raise the price for states to mail out absentee ballot and pay the postage for returned ballots to 55 cents, the first class rate instead of the discounted rate of the past?

Larry

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of Mark Scarberry
Sent: Saturday, 15 August 2020 11:29 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Postal Service Issues

Postal service representatives now seem to be saying that (1) they are not removing mailboxes but rather moving them to locations where more mail has been deposited, and (2) they have stopped removing them. Those statements are a bit contradictory, and of course the location of mailboxes may affect the ease by which citizens can mail their ballots. Postal service representatives also say that you can mail letters (and ballots) from your own mailbox. When I was young (and dinosaurs roamed the earth), we would put outgoing mail in our unlocked mailbox at our curb and put up the red flag. Does anyone still do that? (And of course lots of people don't have their own mailboxes at the curb.) Even if it's just a matter of mischievous kids removing outgoing mail from unlocked mailboxes, it's not wise to send mail that way. And lots of people in urban areas may not have the kinds of mailboxes that they could put outgoing mail in.

There are so many stories going around that I can't keep track of where I've read about the postal service statements. Perhaps some of you are more organized. 

I have to say that I'm alarmed by this situation. It's  not surprising that the postal workers union would want to preserve their members' possibility of getting overtime pay, but if that's necessary to move the mail efficiently then so be it. 

There also have been suggestions that some of these cost-cutting measures were contemplated before the pandemic hit. Perhaps others can clarify that point. It wouldn't in any event make it acceptable to take steps that would delay the delivery of ballots.

Mark

  <https://www.pepperdine.edu/_resources/images/email/pepperdine.png> 

Caruso School of Law

Mark S. Scarberry

Professor of Law
mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu <mailto:mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu> 

Personal: mark.scarberry at gmail.com <mailto:mark.scarberry at gmail.com> 

On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 11:01 AM Jeff Hauser <jeffhauser at gmail.com <mailto:jeffhauser at gmail.com> > wrote:

1. That a policy might be applied generally and more broadly than necessary to achieve its specific ends is... unsurprising?

2. It's not conspiratorial to take the president's words literally and/or seriously.

3.  I added some highlights here, but this graphic from the Washington Post is... not Portland Oregon heavy at all. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/usps-states-delayed-mail-in-ballots/2020/08/14/64bf3c3c-dcc7-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_uspsstates-230pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 1:39 PM Ilya Shapiro <IShapiro at cato.org <mailto:IShapiro at cato.org> > wrote:

Yes, clearly Trump is going to win Oregon by removing mailboxes. Sometimes you have to check your premises. Indeed, all these fights over mail-in/absentee balloting are a phony war because none of the extreme policies either way are in competitive states (with the possible exception of Nevada). 

Ilya Shapiro

Director

Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies

Cato Institute

1000 Mass. Ave. NW

Washington, DC 20001

(o) 202-218-4600

(c) 202-577-1134

Twitter: @ishapiro

http://www.cato.org/people/shapiro.html

On Aug 15, 2020, at 1:33 PM, RuthAlice Anderson <ruthalice.anderson at comcast.net <mailto:ruthalice.anderson at comcast.net> > wrote:

*CAUTION: External Email*

Here in Portland they have been removing mailboxes. It is a fiction that they only removed mailboxes from places that had two. There was only one as you can see in this photo memorializing the mailbox removed about 20 blocks east of my home. Portlanders have planted flowers in potholes, so this is not surprising. 

RuthAlice

<B85E474F885842C7BB2136EDA77339B4.jpg>

<B85E474F885842C7BB2136EDA77339B4.jpg>

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