Letter to the editor: Blame politics, not post office, for voting debacle

I’ve been employed for more than 30 years by the U.S. Postal Service in Pittsburgh. We’ve been delivering mail according to postal regulations for over 200 years. Anyone violating these regulations can be prosecuted and sent to jail, and should be — and that includes the postmaster general and the USPS board of governors.

As for the president of the United States, he/she has no power over the post office. He/she can veto any congressional bill concerning the post office, and the next day Congress can override that veto. But they’re usually playing politics, so most bills vetoed never get passed.

Congress needs to leave politics out of this constitutional institution and get on with the people’s business.

Delaying ballots will never be a postal problem. There are 50 election boards, one for each state, that need to send out applications earlier and extend the deadline for all to be counted. Congress needs to change the Nov. 3 presidential announcement. We can wait until, say, Dec. 3 to make sure all votes are counted. Election boards and Congress need to make these changes now.

Quit blaming the postal service for politicians’ ignorance. Vote in person or vote by mail — the post office will get ballots to where they need to be. Politicians, Congress and the election boards are the only ones with the potential to cause a delay — not the post office.

Please call your Congress member and tell him/her to let the people vote, or we’ll vote them out.

Rick Szypulski

Monroeville