Don’t Mail It In

The post office will play a pivotal role in the Presidential election

Like many New Yorkers, I opened my mailbox this week to find an absentee ballot application for the June 23rd primary election. Governor Cuomo issued an executive order allowing these applications to go out so voters could cast their ballots by mail, helping to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

In a time when we’re all just trying to get through this pandemic with our sanity intact, we’re probably not thinking much about the mail, but we should be. According to an April study by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of Americans expect the coronavirus outbreak to disrupt voting in November. I am among them. Not only do I think the virus will cause chaos at the polls this fall, I think it could hand Trump a victory — and the post office might play a key role in that.

On May 6th, the Postal Service’s board of governors unanimously approved Louis DeJoy to be the new Postmaster General. DeJoy, who will begin serving in June, is a North Carolina businessman who has given millions of dollars to the Republican Party, including $1.2 million to Trump Victory, a super PAC supporting Trump’s re-election bid. DeJoy has no experience working in the Postal Service and his selection marks the first time in nearly two decades that the Postmaster General has not been chosen from within the USPS ranks.

That’s a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, especially when you combine it with Trump’s virulent opposition to voting by…