WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Postal Service’s famous motto – “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers” – is being tested like never before, by challenges well beyond the weather.
Its finances have been devastated by the coronavirus. The Trump administration may attach big strings to federal bailouts.
And the agency’s responsibilities are growing. A dramatic shift in many states to absentee ballots is intended to protect voters from spreading the virus at polling places but is also making more work for post offices.
Calls on who won several races this week in Kentucky and New York faced lengthy delays as swamped officials counted mail-in ballots.
All of that may leave the beleaguered agency at the frontlines of American democracy.
