As the 2020 election approaches, the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has prioritized budget cuts over getting people their mail on time. This could imperil voting by mail, which is expected to happen at unprecedented levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But for all the attention the public has paid to mail-in ballots, a well-functioning USPS is equally critical to voting in person.
Because U.S. elections are so decentralized — with thousands of localized rules, deadlines, ballots and precincts — the post office, as a system that successfully connects the entire nation, is a singularly important part.
The mail is how most voters receive official confirmation of their registration and notices about their polling places. The mail is how ballots get from the printer’s office to those polling places, and how those polling places are staffed. (Usually, the last steps to becoming a poll worker involve receiving an official appointment by mail and responding by mail.) The mail has to achieve all of this on time. Just one missed deadline in a chain of deadlines — for registration, notification, ballot delivery — can disenfranchise a voter.
The mail, in other words, helps run U.S. elections. And there are fears that this year, it will fall down on the job.
Neither snow nor Category 5 hurricanes nor massive printing snafus have stopped the Postal Service from helping safeguard U.S. elections in the past. Has that changed? | 
