Up North Progressive

Yesterday, August 7, 2020, while the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, made radical leadership changes to the United States Post Office, postal workers finished their shifts and went home. Under new rules imposed by DeJoy, any mail undelivered at the end of the shift must wait until the next day. Overtime to finish delivering the mail is no longer allowed. Post offices used to process all mail arriving at their station until all of the mail for that day went out for delivery. Not anymore. People already across the country already notice mail delays are a reality. This means people relying on the USPS to deliver money needed to pay rent, life-saving prescription medication, important documents with a deadline, are waiting days before their mail arrives.

If you’re wondering where your mail is, these pictures will show you. This is the post office delivering mail in northwestern Ohio. In the past workers would arrive to work and their processing stations were empty of mail. This is what they look like now when postal workers come in to work their shift thanks to new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Before DeJoy abolished over time and multiple deliveries, mail was delivered the day it arrived. Now, workers process yesterday’s mail while today’s mail sits until the next day’s shift. Postal workers can’t finish processing mail before the end of their shift and the mail piles up until the next day. If your postal carrier is out sick, on vacation, or under COVID quarantine, the delay is even longer.

10,000 spoiled ballots failed to arrive on time in Michigan’s primary election on August 4, 2020, despite their postmark.

This is deliberate. Trump appointed generous campaign donor Louis DeJoy to do exactly what is happening to our mail delivery now. How many mail-in ballots will they spoil just by holding up the mail in November? Should I even mention Christmas?

Please, dear readers, share these photos everywhere you can.