I've got a fun (and by fun I mean godawful) update for USPS followers:

We had a meeting about these directives being handed down, during which we were asked how we would deciding which mail would be curtailed and which would not be when volumes pushed past 8hrs. The answer?

All mail should now be treated equally.

No regard for class. No regard for priority. Just "mail."

We further asked how this would apply to political mail (not just ballots, but campaign flyers) and we were again told "it will all be treated as the same class."

On the surface you might think "oh good, all political mail should be treated equally!" and yes, you are absolutely correct! But that's not what's being directed here from a logistics standpoint.

See, at present, political mail is considered something of a sacred exception. It is very rarely first or even second class mail, but it is always treated as such. It is never curtailed, and never missed. The post office hates even the APPEARANCE of partiality.

This has always made operations very simple: if political mail exists in your office, it is delivered. If a member of operations shows up at your office, and there is undelivered political mail, you've got a red-faced postmaster doing some 'splaining.

But to now give it equal treatment to other mail? Welp, you just stripped away the impartiality. Maybe a bundle of the ads for a politician your supervisor doesn't like suddenly "didn't make the cutoff," and now it's delayed a day. And hey, maybe it was the day before elections

See, there is a general understanding when you go to your route that you'll bring back a LITTLE bit at the end of the day. Either hand sorting errors, or computer sequencing errors leave you with some pieces that are just out of order, or not even in your route.

Good day? As few as zero.
Guy running the sorting machine at the plant got left by his wife and is a blubbering mess? Maybe 50 pieces.

And the solution was simple: just bring them back and resort for the next day. It happens.

But political mail? Especially in the last couple days before the election? Different ballgame.

The day before the 2016 election, we tasked a handful of CCAs (non-career carriers) with driving around town collecting all missorted political mail, so it could be redistributed in the office. Carriers backtracked their own routes to get Every. Last. Piece.

Is that cost effective? Heck no. No business on earth would do that for a piece of paper they charged a few cents for. But does it guarantee a completely impartial and equal access opportunity for all voters and politicians? Yes. And that's why we are a SERVICE, not a business

But if you strip away the preferential classification of political mail, you strip away the integrity of the entire political process and postal service itself. This is dangerous democratic institution tampering. And you simply have to think in this climate, it's intentional

Again. Contact your reps. Pressure the Biden campaign to make this an issue of importance. We can't afford to lose this to the whims of greedy tyrants.