Postmark Early
Ashland voters beware! Even though Oregon has universal mail in voting, there is a catch if you live in Southern Oregon. Trump’s appointee for Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, developed a plan for “saving the post office” which includes consolidating some postal activities into fewer locations, presumably to save money. One significant change is that mail sent from Ashland is now sent to Portland for postmarking. So even if you drop your ballot in a mailbox or at the post office on Election Day, it won’t be postmarked until it has been shipped up to Portland, which could take an additional day. (See this Oregon Public Broadcasting article for some background.) One alternative to this problem is to use the Oregon Secretary of State ballot drop box at the Ashland Library.
Our ballots here in Ashland are arriving today (October 21) but I have seen social media posts from folks up in Portland who received their ballots last week. So not only do our ballots need to be mailed back early to meet the election deadline, they are delivered a few days later than those that are delivered up north. DeJoy’s agenda with respect to the USPS may be driven by a desire to make the post office operate at lower cost, but the consequence of his plan could be degraded service and even interference in elections.
It may be true that the Post Office could use some modernization to make it more efficient, but simply cutting and consolidating operations in order to save money is not the path to better service. And our nation deserves a top notch postal service. Until that happens, if you vote by mail, please check with the local post office in the state where you live and verify that your ballot will be postmarked in time for this important election.
And please — vote for Kamala Harris.
Posted 21 October 2024 by Mark ·
