Reporter editorial: Voting in 2020

Last month, for a couple of weeks running, there were long delays at the Center Post Office, where customers had to wait in lines stretching from the front door out to the parking lot and down the street.

The Reporter covered the complaints and also contacted United States Postal Service (USPS) officials, who cited cutbacks, staffing issues, as well as the USPS receiving much more mail than usual because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Officials also were quick to say that it wasn’t just ZIP code 11964 that was overwhelmed, leaving customers to wait for mail.

Turns out they were correct, with Post Offices across the country experiencing the same situation. It also turned out that part of the problem was orchestrated from Washington, where Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had announced cuts to the USPS, including public mailboxes, high-speed mail sorting machines, and restrictions on overtime pay for employees.

This, in the middle of a pandemic, and in the run-up to an election that will depend on mail for citizens to cast their ballots.

After a full-throated cry of anger and astonishment from every part of the country and, significantly, from both Republican and Democratic elected officials, DeJoy backed off, sort of, on the cuts and said they would only take place after the election.

DeJoy is a millionaire donor to the Republican party and to the president. In the past four years he’s given $2.5 million. It’s also been reported he has serious conflicts of interest, having investments or owning companies that do business with the USPS.

Result? A wealthy donor is placed in charge, calling for “efficiencies,” which achieves the polar opposite result.

With the president railing every day that mail-in voting produces widespread fraud — completely untrue — and the USPS is “a disaster” that will foul up the election, and more recently, that mail-in voting somehow will result in a “rigged” decision, the dots are not difficult to connect.

Mr. Trump’s self-serving, nakedly political policies affected Shelter Island recently, tarnishing one of the most cherished, enjoyable experiences we have — going to the Post Office for the mail. And also, those policies of Mr. Trump and his discredited, shamelessly political postmaster general, have put American democracy in peril.

Voters should not be discouraged by twisted strategies and machinations of a president who is doing anything and everything to stay in power, including attacking the USPS to discourage the confidence citizens have in the USPS. Vote early — travel to Southold to do so. Vote on Election Day, or vote by mail, but vote.

Don’t let anyone take that away from you.