[music]

Brigid Bergin: For weeks, President Trump has had the United States Postal Service in his crosshairs. Last Thursday on Fox News, he said the quiet part out loud.

Donald Trump: They want $25 billion for the post office. now, they need that money in order to have the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now, in the meantime, they aren't getting there, by the way, those are just two items. If they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting.

Brigid: The admission caused outrage in Washington and beyond. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi called the Chamber back to meet this Saturday with the hope of providing $25 billion to the postal service. The House's oversight committee has called on Louis DeJoy, the new Postmaster General to testify next Monday. As we inch closer and closer to the November election, Mail-in and voting is taking center stage. Millions are seeking to use the postal service to submit their ballots amid the global pandemic. I'm Brigid Bergen in for Tanzina Vega. We check back in on the postal service and mail-in and voting today on The Takeaway. Joining us now is Jacob Bogage, a business reporter for the Washington Post covering the US Postal Service. Jacob, thank you for joining us.

Jacob Bogage: Thanks for having me.

Brigid: We're also joined by Amber McReynolds, CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, which promotes access to mail-in ballots across the country. Thank you, Amber.

Amber McReynolds: Thank you for having me.

Brigid: Jacob, let's begin with the fight between Congress and the executive branch over the management of the postal service. What's the status of that today?

Jacob: Well, it's heating up very early on today. News broke this morning that the Senate on Friday will hold the hearing with the Postmaster General. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold the hearing with the Postmaster General to look into these delays and also see what kind of financial assistance the postal service truly needs. As you mentioned, there's been this push and pull between the White House and Congress over who gets to exercise oversight authority. That authority really does reside in with Congress and not the White House. We'll see that exercised Friday and we'll see an exercised Monday in the House.

Brigid: Jacob, at this point, are there enough funds for the post office to successfully carry out vote-by-mail elections across the country in November?

Jacob: Absolutely, there are. The postal service has $15 billion in cash on hand right now. If it somehow blows through that, which would be problematic. If it somehow blows through that, it's got $10 billion more in a loan from the Treasury Department than it can access. That's plenty of money for the postal service to get through between now and November. It really should tide them over until between March and October of 2021. When the president said he wanted to deprive the postal service of funding to facilitate vote-by-mail, that's problematic, but he's got one thing wrong, and that is the postal service already has enough money to do that.

Brigid: What are the concerns you're hearing from lawmakers about how the post office is preparing for the upcoming election? Do these concerns really break on partisan lines?

Jacob: The main concern, and this is something we've heard for some time now is, are these deadlines that states impose on their voters for deadlines, for registration, deadlines to get your ballot submitted, the deadline to request an absentee ballot, are those compatible with postal service delivery standards? In years past, the postal service has really gone out of its way, even on deadlines that it found unreasonable and incompatible with its delivery standards, to make sure that it devoted extra resources to those areas. The message has been very different this year, the message has been, "We warned you and now you're on your own. You should think about changing your laws, you should think about changing your requirements, but we warned you. If something doesn't get in, don't blame us."

That's a very different tack the postal service is taking this time around than it had even in 2018, That's what has a lot of people very concerned.

Brigid: Amber, I want to bring you into this conversation. When we think about this November election, how many states allow voters to cast mail-in ballots? What does the process normally look like?

Amber: Every state in the country actually has vote-by-mail as an option to vote. That varies greatly, at some states, it's an automatic process where the government is sending active registered voters, their ballot automatically, so that's actually much more efficient from an administrative perspective because they don't have to process all those requests. That's very much the model that I helped to design in Colorado, now seven years ago. Then it goes to the other end of the spectrum where voters are required to provide an excuse. Sometimes that's limited based on age. Sometimes you have to have a notary. It varies by state, but every single state in the country offers vote-by-mail as an option. The impact of all of this is widespread, it covers all states.

Brigid: Some states have expanded eligibility to absentee ballots because of coronavirus concerns, how many states have done that?

Amber: Well, there's been quite a few. In fact, we're actually now, as of today, given the recent announcement from New Jersey, there's now nine states plus the DC area, so Washington, D.C. that is actually planning to send ballots to every single elector. Most recently, Nevada, New Jersey, Vermont, all passed legislation to send in the ballot automatically. Then, a lot of states have waived some of their excuse requirements, or they've added COVID or COVID concerns as an excuse. There's been a massive expansion this year. I think more importantly than even the legislative activity or what politicians have decided, is that voters are opting themselves in to vote this way in historic and record numbers. That's why some of these impacts with the postal service is critical.

One of the other aspects of this is, like election administration, election officials, the postal service should be free from partisan politics, and it should be about service to the public at large. That's what I think is extremely concerning when we see any one of those two things, election administration or the postal service, politicized, it can create a lot of issues and both entities are here to serve the public. That's the key and the most important thing that they do on a daily basis.

Brigid: Amber, I'm hoping you can give our listeners some guidance, some best practices. Now, obviously, elections are administered locally, but can you talk about what voters can do to make sure that their ballots are being counted, and received on time, and cast properly?

Amber: Absolutely. What's really important right now is timing. The key today, I would encourage everybody who's listening today or tomorrow to check your registration. Make sure you're registered to vote, update your address if you need to. Then, if you want to vote by mail, file the request today. We know in a lot of states that are not automatically sending a ballot, there's going to be a lot of people signing up, and so, that's going to backlog election officials in terms of processing requests. Do it as soon as possible. Then, when you get your ballot, send it back and turn it in as soon as you're ready to. The earlier you do that, the better it is.

We recommend not mailing the ballot after eight days prior to the election. Again, the rules and regulations vary by state, some accept postmark, some do not.

A good rule of thumb for the entire country is to mail it no later than eight days prior to the election or drop it off in person, like so many Americans are choosing to do across the country, which is why there's been such an expansion of secure ballot dropboxes manned by election officials.

Brigid: Amber, I want to play for you a call from a listener about his plans for the upcoming election.

Gabriel: Hi, I'm Gabriel calling from the Bronx in New York City. I'm planning on either doing early voting or voting in-person first thing on election day. I, unfortunately, don't feel like I can trust the postal service right now with Trump trying to destroy it and gut it.

Brigid: Amber, I'm wondering if you can reply to what you're hearing in that call, that juxtaposition of people making choices to find other ways to vote versus vote-by-mail because of this fight over the post office?

Amber: Well, I think that it is an individual choice and decision. However, what I would say, and again, as someone who ran elections for 13 years and served voters, I believe that voters having more days and more time to vote their ballot, make their choices, and turn it in, rather than all on one day and taking a risk that everything goes perfectly on the one day, it's better for voters to have that more time and more options.

For me, personally, I like to have time to make my selections at home, and research issues, and do all of that. Again, it's a personal choice by all voters. I would say that I think a lot more voters like to have their unvoted ballot mailed to them, and then we're seeing a significant increase drop it off in person, which alleviates that worry about the post office and the ballot not making it in time. The second thing I would say is a lot of states and localities have also expanded what's called and known as ballot tracking. That's very similar to tracking a package, you can sign up and get an email or a text notification about where your ballot is at every moment in the process so that you get that confirmation, especially when it's received by election officials. That technology was pioneered in Denver, Colorado and now it's in multiple states, including California, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, they're all in the middle of implementing that type of system, as well as New Jersey. There's been a huge expansion of that. We're going to continue to see more states announce those sorts of programs. That just gives voters extra accountability and transparency as to where their ballot is.

Brigid: Jacob, just briefly, this is not just an issue for elections. The fight over the postal service is a fight over all the other things people rely on the postal service, for a host of necessities. Can you talk about, just briefly, some of the stakes in this broader fight for post office funding?

Jacob: Absolutely. In the near term, we're looking at obviously so much more than ballots, we're looking at prescription medications that folks get in the mail. We're looking at bills and paychecks. If Congress passes another round of stimulus spending that sends Americans checks in the mail, those are, for a lot of people, are going to come through the postal service. There's a lot of reasons why a functioning democracy needs a postal service. In the longterm, we're looking at an agency that that will have to reshape itself. The postal service is designed to deal with paper and not boxes. Well, paper mail volumes continue to decline, they've declined for a decade and analysts say they're probably not going to come back up because who's sending that much paper mail anymore?

Package volumes are going way up because everyone's buying stuff online because we're stuck at home during a pandemic. The question is if consumer behaviors stay the same and package volumes continue to increase, does the postal service need to realign itself to deal better with those items?

Brigid: Jacob Bogage is a business reporter for the Washington Post and Amber McReynolds is the CEO for the National Vote at Home Institute. Thank you both for joining us.

Jacob: Thanks for having me.

Amber: Thank you for having me.

Brigid: We asked you, how do you plan to vote in November? Are you confident your vote will count?

Joy: Hi, this is Joy from Florida. In the November election, I plan on doing my regular Florida mail-in ballot, but I plan to deliver it myself to the Board of Elections. Our mailman is great, I have complete confidence in him, period. I just don't have confidence in the Board of Elections.

Christian: Hi, this is Christian, Seattle, Washington. Here in Washington State, I've been voting by mail for years without issue, looking forward to that familiar process this year. I hope the rest of my fellow Americans get to give it a shot as well.

Leslie: Hi, this is Leslie from Bergen County, New Jersey. I will be voting by mail as I have for the past several years in New Jersey, they've made it really easy to do. I am reconsidering using the post office and may use the special drop boxes that will be available in our county. I will also be voting as soon as I receive my ballot.

Brigid: Some of you told us you feel confident in vote-by-mail because your state offers ballot tracking.

Don: Hi, my name is Don, and I'm calling from Ashland, Oregon. My wife and I moved to Oregon last year where mail-in voting has been used successfully for many years. Voters here receive their ballots about two to three weeks before the election, leaving more than enough time to research the options. Voters can either mail back those ballots or use one of the many available drop boxes. Vote fraud in Oregon is taken very seriously, and there have been no significant issues with this approach since its inception. We feel confident that mail-in voting will work for us here. It is certainly a more convenient way for us to do it, especially in the midst of the pandemic.

Jane Feldman: Yes, my name is Jane Feldman, I'm from Denver, Colorado. We are very lucky in Colorado to have a safe, secure, and convenient mail-in ballot system. The minute my ballot arrived, I will fill it out and then drop it off in one of the 38 drop boxes that currently are in the city and county of Denver. I'm going to do that in plenty of time. Then, I will get a text from the City and County of Denver telling me that my ballot has been received and that my vote has been counted. It's a great system, it is not fraudulent at all, and it really should be adopted across the country.

Marvin Ramirez: Hello, this is Marvin Ramirez, I live in Redondo Beach, California. I will receive my ballot in the mail, I have already signed up for BallotTrax. I will complete my ballot early and personally drop it off at an authorized drop-off center. I will then monitor its progress through the system.

Brigid: Some of you said you'll vote in person despite the pandemic because you're concerned that your ballots won't be counted if you mail them in.

Lisa: Hi, this is Lisa calling from Raynham, Massachusetts. I'm calling to confirm that I will be voting in person in my polling place because I am concerned about the ability for my ballot to be cast and counted if I mail it. I also am voting in person because I have paper ballots in Massachusetts. I think that if I were in a state that used electronic voting, I would definitely do the absentee ballot, and then bring it to the polling place, and check how that works, because I think electronic voting is very easily [unintelligible 00:16:09]

George: Hi, my name is George, and I live in Berkley, Massachusetts. I live in a fairly small town in a somewhat rural area. Voting is always pretty simple for us. The town does a great job, so I will be voting in person. I will probably vote early to make sure there are no crowds.

Brigid: Thanks, as always, for weighing in. If you haven't yet, you can tell us how you're planning to cast your ballot this November. Call us at 877-8-MY-TAKE.

[music]

Copyright © 2020 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.