[dropcap]Earlier[/dropcap] this year, when it seemed that some media outlets were searching for businesses to beat up for potentially spreading the coronavirus, or violating lockdown, the City of Denver tried to shut down the US Postal Service Distribution Center in North Denver. It is essential. It handles 10 million pieces of mail a day for 6.3 million people in Colorado and Wyoming.
All of five out of 1,800 employees there had tested positive.
Never mind that the city of Denver has no jurisdiction over the federal operated plant.
Never mind that only a tiny portion of that facility deals directly with customers.
Never mind that the plant said it was following all safety and hygiene regulations.
Never mind, because it was never about the five employees. It was a power play. How do we know? Literally the same week, the King Soopers in Capitol Hill had a COVID outbreak that had at that point killed one employee. (Later two more employees died.) However, there was no threat of closure, even though multiple substitutes — other grocery stores and even other King Soopers outlets — exist for that single King Soopers, whereas none exist for the USPS distribution center.
Fast forward some months. Once again the Post Office is under fire. President Trump has stated that the Post Office cannot be relied on to facilitate a heavy stream of mail-in ballots. The Postmaster General began instituting cuts to theoretically improve the Post Office’s poor profitability, but the timing was suspect. Many posited that the cuts were being implemented to curtail the efficacy of mail-in voting. (He has since walked back on some of these changes.) President Trump has even tried to block funding to USPS to curtail mail-in voting.
It is true that mail-in ballots have in some places proven to be troublesome. The recent primary election in New York took weeks to resolve. That is not a good plan for November! But it happens to be that Colorado is a leader in mail-in voting, and smart people around the country have been visiting this state, learning how we do it, then returning to their elections boards and post offices to implement our good practices.
It is imperative to do so in plenty of time, otherwise there is a good chance that November 3 will not yield immediate, clear results. Not because of fraud, but because of delay.
This newspaper — along with millions of businesses — relies on the Post Office. People receiving Social Security checks rely on the Post Office. People receiving their medication through the mail rely on the Post Office. The growing amount of people working in e-Commerce from home rely on the Post Office for the delivery of packages. And just like the Post Office was working in north Denver earlier this year, it is working now.
Yes, the Post Office is losing billions a year, and that requires a solution. The clearest and most fair one is to change the Congressional mandate that requires the Post Office to pre-fund its retirement health fund — something no other government agency has to do.
But please stop using the Post Office as a pawn, whether for coronavirus or for elections. Too many people rely on it.
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