What’s at stake over the survival of the USPS?

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As concerns grow over how we will vote in November, and how to vote safely during the current pandemic, the U.S. Postal Service has become a political football as never before in its centuries of existence. Voting by mail is assailed by our country’s chief executive and instead of shoring up this essential service, both the president and the U.S. Senate are playing chicken with its survival.

I received a call back from Senator Burr’s office after I left a message expressing concern. “Senator Burr is not in favor of privatizing the postal service,” the aide said, and when I thanked him for that, he added that Senator Burr is in favor of funding the post office through September. “September,” I asked?

For as long as I can remember, the USPS has at times adjusted its rates and post office locations, yet whenever shifts in population have caused a rural location to be considered for closure, entire communities have united in communicating with their member of Congress to keep this cornerstone of community function in place.

One element threatening the postal service today is the partisan accusation of fraud if we vote by mail instead of risking our health by in-person voting. Chatham citizens cast aside such division a few election cycles ago, over a real threat to election security. A county in eastern N.C. had lost most of the election results due to touch screen machines with no paper record. A willful decision by a runaway county Board of Elections in Chatham had ignored their public hearing where citizens unanimously rejected the move to unverifiable touch screen voting machines. A committee supported together by Democrats and Republicans funded a court action that helped return us to using verifiable paper ballots.

One of the claims during the dispute had been that even paper ballots could not readily be counted in the event of equipment failure. Postal workers at a nearby mail center offered their services in such an event, saying, “We handle millions of pieces of mail in our work, and are happy to volunteer if needed!”

The financial crisis at the USPS is the product of several factors, but until the pandemic hit it would have been solvent had it not been subjected to a requirement, imposed by Congress in 2006, that health care expenses for employees be funded 50 years in advance. Our mail service is burdened with a unique requirement that no other business has had to survive: to set aside billions to cover employees some of whom haven’t even been born. This mischief was pushed through Congress largely by the efforts of a billionaire whose industries have no such set-aside, and who believes that the USPS, Social Security and Medicare should all be privatized.

For background on the making of this unnecessary crisis, visit inthepublicinterest.org and search “USPS” for public interest investigator Lisa Graves’ detailed account.

I’m glad to live in a community with cooperative instincts on these important matters, and hope our coming election produces results statewide and nationally, consistent with Chatham values.

Former press photographer Jerry Markatos has lived in Chatham County over 50 years, and leads the monthly programs of Balance & Accuracy in Journalism since cofounding the group in 1991. Featured subjects include media ethics, equal rights at home and abroad and the public interest struggles we face. Jerry enjoys storytelling, photography and seeing neighbors at the polls.