It all started when the Trump administration appointed a new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who expressed his willingness to cut costs for U.S. Postal Service. In the process, he implemented certain operational changes including limiting sorting machines and cap on overtime. As a result, mail deliveries suffered, and Democratic attorneys general in 14 states filed a lawsuit with Montana’s democratic governor Steve Bullock‘s state leading the initiative. In August, DeJoy stated that he would temporarily suspend some of his operational changes keeping the coming November election in mind. But, in the end, his office settled the lawsuit on Wednesday, October 14, and reversed the previous changes.
On the surface, DeJoy’s intervention in making Postal Service profitable looks like a good idea since USPS has been consistently losing money for years. But Democrats have argued postal service should not be seen as a profit-making business, but a public service. Moreover, they claimed that in an election year this kind of operational change is purported to delay the mail-in votes. President Trump has repeatedly claimed that the mail-in votes are subject to voting fraud. Critics have pointed out that there is no widespread voter fraud in the mail-in vote and these changes in postal service was a calculated move to suppress voting rights where Democrats are traditionally more in favor of mail-in voting. Most will agree that this debate has serious implications for the future of the country.