![]() 22 to allocate $25 billion to the Postal Service and ban operational cuts until after the election – a move the agency already said would happen. Public concerns reached the highest levels of government. The combination created a social-media frenzy with #USPS as a top trending hashtag for several days along with #SaveTheUSPS and #USPSProtests. The photo was debunked, but it was shared more than 80,000 times and coincided with real news reports of boxes being removed. States are expanding voting access in different ways, including offering ballot drop boxes, allowing people to drop-off ballots in person, and in some cases extending the deadline for returning ballots.įears about voter suppression centered on mailboxes in mid-August when at least one viral tweet purported to show a pile of them at a dump. Now, the owner of a salon near the intersection said, seniors in a nearby building have to walk uphill several blocks to the nearest mailbox. In Upper Manhattan, the Postal Service removed a box for construction at Cabrini Boulevard and 181st Street. “The removing of mailboxes and sorting machines has a disproportionate impact on underserved communities, where the post office is really relied upon,” she said. They will grapple with the tough choice of voting in-person and risking illness or trying to navigate voting by mail, according to Capri Cafaro, a former Democratic member of the Ohio Senate who now teaches politics at American University. Seniors, those with disabilities and limited transportation often rely on collection boxes in their neighborhood for outgoing mail. “It’s a lifeline for a lot of people,” said Brett Max Kaufman, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. “Why now? Why not wait until after the election?” said Bernard Fraga, associate professor of political science at Emory University. Some voting rights experts question why the Postal Service would remove any mailbox during a pandemic when more voters than ever are expected to cast ballots by mail. The Postal Service removed boxes during construction projects in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.Įven if this year's removals track with historical averages, 2020 has been anything but a normal year. Rusty bolts embedded in the concrete are still visible. In Eugene, Oregon, at least 21 are gone, culled from locations with multiple boxes that now have one or two. It was supposed to reopen this spring, but still hasn’t. In Ashland, Massachusetts, four boxes in the post office went offline when the building closed after mold was discovered in the basement. Reporters found boxes had been removed on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Broadway in New York City and on 10 Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan. ![]() Reporters across the USA TODAY Network checked on 271 of those boxes in 20 states and confirmed that 186 were not there. Comparing a list of mail collection boxes the Postal Service released in September 2019 to those listed on the agency’s website this month showed a reduction of more than 4,200. The Postal Service did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for records of boxes removed this year. On average, from 2010 through 2019, the Postal Service reports it removed 3,258 drop boxes per year. But between a pandemic, a presidential election, and a president who is fanning the flames of suspicion that he’s sabotaging the Postal Service to suppress mail-in voting, Americans are now paying close attention to every cut the post office makes. The blue boxes have been disappearing for decades. In the meantime, across the United States, missing mailboxes had become a political hot button. ![]() They didn’t return until August 21, the same day Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified to a Senate committee about postal cuts. In all, more than 30 mailboxes disappeared from the city’s streets that day. In front of the offices of the Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY Network, a reporter asked the worker why he was taking the boxes. Protests after George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer had taken a destructive turn the night before. Postal worker rolled through downtown Columbus, Ohio in late May, stopping to hoist iconic blue mailboxes onto a flatbed truck.
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