For Immediate Release – March 22, 2016
Contact: Amy Shenker, askpr2011@gmail.com, 301-412-2616
Advisory for Wed., March 23, 5:30 p.m.
Tomorrow — Baltimore Field Hearing on
U.S. Postal Service:
Will Slow Mail Affect U.S. Elections?
Community Panel to Hear Testimony about Impact of Service Cuts – including Likely Delays in Mail Ballots that Could Signal Trouble for 2016 Presidential Race and other Elections
BALTIMORE – The first in a series of field hearings to examine what works – and what doesn’t – in the U.S. Postal Service will be held in Baltimore tomorrow, March 23. The focus will be on how cutbacks in U.S. mail service will affect postal customers, including the delivery of mail ballots in this fall’s election. The 2016 election will be the first major election since service standards were lowered in January 2015.
Who:
John Seibel, election expert and president of Maryland-based True Ballot
Mary Pat Clarke, Baltimore City Council
Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway, Senior Pastor, Union Baptist Church
Marvin ‘Doc’ Cheatham, civil rights activist
What:
Field hearing on deliver, reliability, and quality of the U.S. Postal Service
Where:
Coppin State University Health and Human Services Bldg., 3d Floor Atrium
2500 W. North Ave, Baltimore
When:
Wed., March 23, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Background: On Wed., March 23, A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service, a coalition of more than 130 national and local organizations, will convene the first of five hearings in cities across the U.S. to assess the reliability and quality of the U.S. mail service in the face of current and planned cutbacks. Additional hearings will take place later this spring in Cleveland, Greensboro, New York, and San Jose.
At the Baltimore hearing, community leaders – including Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway, and Marvin “Doc” Cheatham –will hear testimony from small business owners, consumers, workers, and others who have been affected by cutbacks in mail delivery.
Among those testifying will be John Seibel, an election expert and president of True Ballot, a firm which provides private mail balloting services to publicly traded companies, labor unions, Native American tribes, homeowners associations, and other clients. Seibel will discuss recent elections that have been delayed or cast in doubt due to slow mail delivery.
The implications of slow mail delivery that Seibel will document could be a “canary in the coal mine” for the upcoming 2016 presidential elections. Some states, such as Oregon, vote entirely by mail. In other key election states, such as Ohio, a large share of the population votes or attempts to vote in advance of Election Day using the U.S. mail. Tens of millions of Americans – including senior citizens, members of the armed services, Americans abroad, and many others – now vote absentee or by mail. Slow delivery of their ballots could disenfranchise these voters – or delay definitive election results for an unknown period of time in the event of a close contest.
The problems with mail ballots are just one example of the problems postal consumers – including small businesses and non-profit organizations – have faced since U.S. Postal Service (USPS) management began an aggressive campaign to close postal facilities and reduce employment. On Jan. 6, 2015, as a result of cutbacks, the USPS announced a downgrading of its service standards, making it impossible to rely on next-day delivery of U.S. mail in most communities and delaying delivery of mail by days across the nation.
The stated goal of restructuring is to reduce costs. But a February report to the U.S. Postal Commission reveals that the USPS has actually lost money due to a recent round of facility closings, due to increased transportation costs required to transport mail to more distant processing facilities. Members of Congress have objected strongly to the USPS restructuring plan and the resulting decline in service standards.
# # #
A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service is a coalition of more than 130 national and local civil rights, environmental, faith-based, and labor organizations united to advocate for a great public Postal Service, including non-profit postal banking and other financial services. For more information, please visit http://www.agrandalliance.org.