The House of Representatives of the US Congress approved a bill of the Democratic Party, according to which the country's Postal Service should receive an additional $ 25 billion from the budget. These funds are intended to improve the quality of the department's work during the upcoming presidential elections in November.

The American electoral system allows remote voting by mail. Given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the urgency of this way of expressing will may increase.

The bill implies not only an increase in funding for the Postal Service, but also the abolition of previously introduced measures to reduce costs in post offices, the profitability of which has been falling in recent years.

  • USA mailbox
  • Reuters
  • © Rebecca Cook

According to the document, the measures it introduces should be valid until the cancellation of the public health emergency declared in connection with the COVID-19 epidemic or until January 31, 2021, whichever comes later.

“The United States Postal Service cannot make or approve any change in the Postal Service's operations or level of service that would deviate from the procedure effective January 1, 2020, and may reduce the quality of service and make it more difficult to operate quickly, reliably and effective provision of services, ”the bill says.

Postal collapse

Mail service outages have previously appeared in the US media. So, the news resource BuzzFeed News published an article in mid-August, which said that due to the incorrect operation of the mail, people waiting for packages with medicines had serious problems.

The New York Times newspaper on August 21 also talked about the disruptions in the work of the mail, which, as the newspaper noted, can most strongly affect the inhabitants of the American hinterland - after all, the mail plays a special role in their lives due to its remoteness from large cities.

The responsibility for these problems, according to journalists, lies with the new head of the Postal Service, Luis Dejoy, who was appointed to this post in June 2020. The businessman made his fortune thanks to major contracts with the state postal service. He also previously acted as a major donor to the US Republican Party. So, only for Trump's election campaign, Dejoy donated more than $ 1.2 million.

  • Nancy Pelosi
  • Reuters
  • © Sarah Silbiger

As head of the Postal Service, Dejoy initiated a series of transformations, which, according to his critics, led to disruptions in the work of the department.

Commenting earlier on these messages on her Twitter, the speaker of the lower house of Congress Nancy Pelosi personally blamed the head of the White House Donald Trump for the problems.

“Trump's assault on the Postal Service is not only a threat to the existence of our democracy, but also a blow to the health of Americans in communities across the country. This Saturday, the House of Representatives will take action, ”she wrote on 20 August. 

The Trump assault on the Postal Service isn't just a threat to the life of our democracy - it impacts the health of Americans in communities across the country. This Saturday, the House will take action. #DontMessWithUSPShttps: //t.co/mz6WTZBHZ4

- Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 20, 2020

The management of the Postal Service, in turn, denies the accusations of the Democrats. So, Dejoy said that the American mail will be able to process and deliver all the ballots that can be sent as part of the vote.

“On the eve of the electoral season, I want to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service is fully capable of ensuring the reliability and promptness of the delivery of postal items related to elections,” Dejoy said, speaking at a hearing at the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Senate.

However, analysts say the Democrats' fears are not unfounded.

“Trump, in appointing the head of the US Postal Service, did his best to accelerate its reform and reduce the likelihood of a mail-order vote. Of course, the problems in the department did not begin under Trump, but now they have worsened largely because the Postal Service has become a tool for political maneuver, "Andrei Sidorov, head of the department of international organizations and world political processes at the Faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University, explained in an interview with RT.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, has already criticized the initiative of the Democratic Congressmen, accusing them of deception.

"Representatives of the Postal Service have repeatedly stated that they do not need money and will not change anything," the politician wrote on Twitter.

He added that we are talking about "another deception", the purpose of which is to send "unclaimed" $ 25 billion "to achieve political goals."

“Vote against the ongoing Pelosi-Sumerian deception aimed at money laundering. (…) Only an absentee ballot is acceptable, ”Trump wrote.

Representatives of the Post Office have repeatedly stated that they DO NOT NEED MONEY, and will not make changes. This is all another HOAX by the Democrats to give 25 Billion unneeded dollars for political purposes, without talking about the Universal Mail-In Ballot Scam ....

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2020

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also criticized the Democrats' initiative, accusing them of ignoring the pressing needs of Americans.

Pre-election uncertainty

Earlier, the head of the White House has repeatedly spoken out against the practice of voting by mail. So, speaking to voters in June, the politician noted that foreign states can use this kind of voting.

“I'm especially worried about China. Not Russia, but China. What if they print millions of ballots using exactly the same paper and printing machines as ours? What if they print these newsletters and distribute them? Voting by mail is fraught with enormous dangers, ”Trump said.

At the same time, he has no objections to voting with absentee ballots outside the place of permanent residence.

As HSE professor Alexander Domrin recalled in an interview with RT, Trump is not in vain so opposed to the Democrats on this issue, since the Republicans won in the previous elections in states where voting took place mainly as usual.

  • Donald Trump
  • Reuters
  • © Tom Brenner

"In those states where there was a vote by mail, when there was no real confirmation of who voted how, the Democrats won," Domrin said.

Andrey Sidorov adheres to a similar point of view.

“Trump believes mail-order voting will be dishonest and will lead to his losing the election. At the same time, the political strategists of the Democratic Party are confident that if they manage to hold a vote by mail, it will help to gain an edge over Trump's conservative electorate, ”the expert says.

Trump's rival, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, by contrast, advocates remote voting by mail. This way of expressing will may become the main one if the epidemiological situation in November does not allow holding elections in the traditional format, the Democrats believe. At the same time, experts do not consider the likelihood that the vote can be postponed to another date.

“It is unlikely that the elections will be postponed, they were never moved, even during the First and Second World Wars. We will know in what format the upcoming elections will take place only after the presidential debate is over, ”Domrin predicts.

As Andrei Sidorov explained, it is impossible to postpone the voting date, since this must be preceded by many legal procedures.

“There is too little time left for that. It is very possible that the procedures will differ significantly between states, for example, in some states it will be possible to vote by mail, in others - only in the usual way, ”the expert added.

  • US elections
  • Reuters
  • © Octavio Jones

According to Andrei Sidorov, the US Postal Service has now become "an election campaign tool and a battlefield between Democrats and the Trump administration." At the same time, postal voting will inevitably lead to a delay in the process of elections and vote counting, which may provoke additional disagreements between opponents.

However, experts doubt that the bill passed by the House of Representatives will be approved by the Senate, where the majority belongs to the Republicans.

“It is not yet clear whether the Democratic bill will be approved by the Senate, as it may simply not be considered at the level of the relevant committee. But if he passes the committee, then some of the Republicans may well support him - among them there are those who do not connect their political calculations with the Trump administration. But in any case, the president can veto this document, ”Sidorov summed up.