Our beloved Postal Service has advised people (quietly) that it may not be able to continue as a going concern: “However, the Postal Service remains concerned that this measure will be insufficient to enable the Postal Service to withstand the significant downturn in our business that could directly result from the pandemic. Under a worst case scenario, such downturn could result in the Postal Service having insufficient liquidity to continue operations.” In addition, postage on mail-in ballots has been hiked from 22 cents to $0.55 AND, in a policy dictated by Postbungler General Louis DeJoy, election ballots will be treated as bulk mail, i.e. very low priority.
What has this to with gambling? Sports ballot is on the ballot in Maryland (definitely) and California (probably). Remember how it just squeaked through by the very slimmest of majorities in Colorado two years ago? A USPS collapse or suppression of vote-by-mail could damn gaming ballot measures in multiple states, risking a reprise (or worse) of the Colorado situation. Speaking of which … the Rocky Mountain State has a ballot question coming up which would raise loss limits (the lowest in the U.S.) and allow new games. We don’t want to see that going down to defeat, do we?
I dont think the post office sabotage “strategy” is going to work, people are going to vote, when you try and mess with peoples rights, they revolt. A whole gaggle of people are going to have to testify under oath about the motivations and mechanics of this suppression tactic, the simple solution to voting during a pandemic is to throw money and resources at it, not trying to do that when you give PPP “loans” out to scammers who buy Italian sports cars is crazy, Federal Judges are going to intervene in my opinion…
“Smart Mail” @ the USPS: when I order something online and it will be shipped by FedEx to the closest regional US post office, then delivered by the local postal person, they call it “smart mail”. Smart for the seller and FedEx, apparently nobody at the post office figured out they are doing the costly part of door-to-door delivery for a small fee.
I and my neighbors have had serious problems with our mail delivery for several years. We have made multiple complaints to the Post Master. I have noticed a few small improvements in the last couple of months. The bad service and the deficits in the Post Office have been the norm now for many years. I am so happy to know that you have traced the problem to Donald Trump and his new Post Master General who have just begun to address and try to find the solution. In light of how long the postal system has been fraught with problems, it was just brilliant of the Democratic governors to suddenly change their voting systems to mass mail out of ballots to all 125% of the voters on their voting lists, while they have resisted attempts to cleanse them of dead, moved, and otherwise missing recipients which will play havoc with the postal system. At the same time they have refuse attempts to incorporate voter IDs and have disallowed checking of voter signatures. This will make the “hanging chad” issue in a couple of Florida counties in the Bush vs Gore election seem like a minor problem. The lawyers are probably celebrating already.