Last week we saw many developments in the Trump Administration’s ongoing effort to discredit vote-by-mail and postal workers’ commitment to serving the American public.
On Monday, August 24, the Supreme Court lifted a lower court’s injunction on the Postal Service implementing the Executive Order. On Wednesday August 26, the Postal Service officially published its final rule, prompting a new wave of lawsuits challenging the attacks on mail-in voting. And on Thursday August 27, 24 states and a number of voting rights organizations were granted a temporary restraining order putting the postal rule on hold. Another court hearing is set for September 3, but for now, the Postal Service’s implementation of the Executive Order is stalled.
While the legal challenges are driving headlines and creating confusion about the viability of vote-by-mail for this upcoming election, it’s important for postal workers to make our position absolutely clear:
This Executive Order is wrong and unconstitutional, and so is the Postal Service’s rule. They are based on a problem that is not real. Across decades, thanks to the hard work of countless postal workers, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely and securely exercised their right to vote through the mail. Allegations of widespread election mail fraud are quite simply false. And, if implemented, the Postal Service’s rule may create safety concerns for APWU members who will be unfairly blamed for voters not receiving their ballots.
Furthermore, postal workers have not yet been trained in the Postal Service’s proposed new method of handling vote-by-mail and can’t possibly be sufficiently trained in time for the mid-term elections. This creates a false impression of ineptitude on the part of postal clerks, when the real problem is postal management creating an impossible atmosphere for success.
The Postal Service is failing the test of common sense by asking postal workers to verify voter eligibility, when that authority is clearly vested by the Constitution in each state’s board of elections. Our job is to deliver America’s mail, not to decide who can receive mail.
Make no mistake, postal workers don’t deliver only Democratic ballots or Republican ballots. We take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and we share your anger at Washington trying to take away mail service from states and counties. We take pride in our commitment to serve every American and our patriotic duty to move election mail as swiftly and securely as possible.
What the Administration is doing, with postal management’s cowardly complicity, is to sow doubt about a system that has proven time and time again to be safe, secure, and an excellent way to ensure every eligible voter has their vote counted. The chaos and confusion as the issue bounces around the courts, this close to the election, only furthers efforts to dissuade Americans from exercising their hard-won right to vote.
While we await more court decisions on the constitutionality of the Executive Order, our message to the American public is clear: you can trust postal workers to get your ballot where it belongs. We have done it for generations and we will do it again this year. We know you are counting on us, and we will deliver.
When the dust has settled on this disastrous Executive Order, postal workers will be prepared to lead the charge to keep, protect, and expand vote-by-mail for generations to come.
The post APWU Statement on Developments in Vote-by-Mail Executive Order first appeared on APWU.