How far will your ballot have to travel to reach your town election official?
By definition, mail-in ballots fall under what used to be known as “in town” mail. Older voters will remember that most post offices had two letter slots in the lobby: One had Fairview (i.e. the name of your town or city), and the other said Out of Town. Those slots no longer exist in my local post office. According to Post Office staff, all mail—even within the town—goes to the local sorting center. For my Boston suburb, that means Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
Last week I wanted to send a birthday present to a friend who lives across town. We’ve not gotten together since pre-COVID times, so I decided to throw some business to the USPS and simply drop a package in the mail to travel the 5.2 miles. I was told it could be up to three days given new mail handling protocols. It seemed long, but that was okay.
Today, five days later, it is scheduled to be delivered. Why so long? Check out the tracking.
Yes, my package traveled from my home town, to Jersey City, NJ, back to Springfield, MA, then to Shrewsbury, and back to my home town. At least 438 miles total. The package is expected to be delivered today, having missed the birthday deadline.
I cannot say with certainty that a letter would travel the same route. What is certain is that Congress cannot relent in their efforts to expose ballot delivery sabotage by Louis DeJoy and his cronies, and voters need to be informed what can happen to their ballots.
This is not efficiency; this is election tampering.