Vote early, but don’t put that ballot in the mail

This post was originally published on this site

Between the now corrupt Supreme Court and the Trump-infested U.S. Postal Service, it is vital that as many votes as are humanly possible are cast early and either in person, or dropped off directly to elections officials.

Why vote early? NOW? Carefully and fully masked and 6 feet apart? Because we must have a resounding victory over Trump when we wake up on November 4. He needs to be blown out with enough electoral votes to stop him from having any room to challenge the results in the courts that Mitch McConnell has packed for him. And why do you have to make sure that your ballot goes directly to your local elections office? Because the Postal Service is still delaying first-class mail, in some areas as much now as back in July.

We have only one week before the election is over. When you wake up on November 4, we need to know we did absolutely everything to save our democracy. Sign up with 2020 Victory, and make phone calls to battleground state voters to get out the vote. All you need is a personal computer, and a burning desire to throw Donald Trump out of office.  

Right now, nationally, 15% of all first-class mail was not delivered on time, the “14th consecutive week the on-time rate sat below 90 percent for mail that should reach its destination within three days. Despite all the court orders from Montana to Pennsylvania to New York to the District of Columbia, the Postal Service hasn’t been able to restore service levels everywhere. And where it is particularly failing is in—go figure—battleground states and communities of color.

The Wall Street Journal has been tracking first-class mail delivery and found that of the 29 states that require that ballots be received by Election Day, 28 states have experienced periods of delivery delays of more than 6 days since the end of July. Those states include the battlegrounds of Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia. But it’s nationwide, as well. “Average mail delivery times slowed in nearly every state at the end of August, culminating in the week ending Sept. 5, the GrayHair data show—a sign of what could happen in the final days of the election.”

Part of the problem is staffing shortages, thanks to the pandemic and DeJoy’s supposed cost-cutting sabotage measures. Part of the problem is the large increase in mail pieces because of the election—up 23% from the average volume in September. “It’s really hectic right now, crazy busy—there’s just a lot of ballots,” said Michael Moriconi, president of the Tucson, Arizona, branch of the American Postal Workers Union. “We don’t have enough people.”

Which is all to say if you haven’t voted yet and have an absentee ballot in hand, either plan to drop it off at a ballot collection box—not a mailbox—or elections office that accepts them. If you want to make sure your vote is in hand and are physically capable, put on your mask and vote in person—earlier is better. If you’ve got an absentee ballot but want to vote in person instead, take your ballot with you to the early voting site and the poll workers will make sure it’s destroyed.

If you have voted, help your friends, family, or neighbors who haven’t voted yet do so. If you have the time to make GOTV calls, please do that as well to get the word out everywhere that it’s time to vote and that those ballots can’t go in the mail.