LA Times - We mailed 100 letters to test the Postal Service.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The verdict: Spotty at best, dismal at worst

The letter — filled with stickers for a 5-year-old boy named William — was mailed at the post office in the Los Angeles community of Sylmar on Aug. 22. It was sent first class, at a cost of 55 cents, and with a promise, according to the U.S. Postal Service website, of "delivery in 1-3 business days."

The plain white envelope arrived at its destination, a ranch-style house in Austin, Texas, 11 days later.

Another letter, mailed from Malibu to the San Francisco suburb of Millbrae, sat in a Los Angeles processing center for three days and wasn't delivered for an additional four days after that.

And a letter sent from the Alhambra post office to a residence in Washington, D.C., took four days to get to the mail processing center in the capital, and three more days elapsed before it reached its final destination.

The slow mail service from Los Angeles to cities near and far was just one of the findings of a Los Angeles Times effort to test, in a small but revealing way, the reliability of the Postal Service as it comes under increasing scrutiny due to deep cuts by the Trump administration.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/we-mailed-100-letters-to-test-the-postal-service-the-verdict-spotty-at-best-dismal-at-worst/ar-BB193GHo?li=BBnb7Kz

Heckuva job Trumpy

[CrispyQ]

1. This needs to be repeated from every major city.

I knew a Trump presidency would be bad, but I didn't imagine just how much damage he would do. I'm stunned. And horrified.

[Midnightwalk]

4. Random zip codes would be better

I bet we would see mail delays correlate with how the area voted.

I’d love to see voting delays (time spent in line) tracked the same way.

[matt819]

10. Well, that wouldn't be random

But your point is a good one. The problem, though, is that mail moves through any number of post offices from origin to destination. Obviously, some will be in red states, others in blue states, and yet others in purple states.

Another possible test would be to send pieces that are the size of absentee ballots, and see how this affects delivery. Another test would be to send mail from/to local red areas and from/to local blue areas, and see how that affects delivery.

The major newspapers could solicit mailing addresses nationwide and then run their test. Nationwide mailing from blue to red, red to blue, blue to blue, red to red, and totally random. And then local mail within blue/blue and red/red areas.

I send most of my packages via Priority Mail, and I just did a spot check of recent orders. Some delivered in 2 days, as promised. Others up to 5 days. I'm going to do a more thorough analysis when I have some time and report back.

[DFW]

21. We did a test of absentee ballot size envelopes.

Not intentionally, but it turned out as if it were a test case. Some distant ancestor of ours in New York City had some trust fund that sent me $89 or some such princely sum every year. This either ran dry or was eaten up by fees, or something that caused this year to be the end of it. I’m glad, actually, because the resulting paperwork and tax declaration were more than they were worth. My brother in Virginia got his on July 31st. Mine arrived in Dallas on August 14th, the day I arrived back in Germany. They had been sent from NYC on the same day.

As a contrast, I recently sent a letter from here (Düsseldorf area) to Dallas. It took 7 days to get there, so it isn’t some worldwide virus problem. It is a Trump-Miller-Kushner-DeJoy problem. It is a Republican problem.

[yellowdogintexas]

17. that is actually quite easy to do

We do it through our ePollbooks by handing the person at the end of the line a barcoded receipt. When that person reaches our desk, we scan it and will see the wait time. At that point we can advise the Elections Office of the wait time at our location.

This election we will probably do it every 2 hours which is when we post our total # of voters on the door

Seems to me in a less electronic setting, the judge could take a card to the last voter in line with the time written on it, then record that time when the voter reaches the desk then contact the elections office.

Since we can vote at any polling place in the county on Election Day, if we have long wait times, the Elections office can let us know the wait times at other polling places nearby.

[DSandra]

6. The damage a malignant narcissist / sociopath can do is incalculable

[Bobstandard]

2. USPS was so good!

My small book publishing comps mails using the media mail rate. The delivery promise is 2-8 days. Most packages arrived in 2-3. Now they take weeks prompting order cancellations and refunds.

That’s how trump supports small business.

[klook]

7. I know. How can you screw up the post office?

It's like making tap water unsafe, a sign of basic incompetence and civic irresponsibility.


- Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know (Natural Resources Defense Council)

Something that should be easy to avoid but that Republicans are also quite good at.

[DSandra]

11. What a way to further destroy small businesses in America

America is quickly becoming more neo-feudalist with only big corporations, businesses working with big corporations, and businesses backed by the rich being able to survive. Your either a serf or a lord.

[wryter2000]

3. He has done a heck of a job

This was exactly what he was trying to accomplish.

[SergeStorms]

27. All because Trump has a mad on....

about Bezos, an actual billionaire. "I'll show you. I'll destroy everything!"

[SCantiGOP]

5. If this were just incompetence

That would be awful.
The fact that it is purposeful, and for an illegal political reason, moves it into malfeasance and criminal activity.

[DSandra]

14. What you get when a tyrant takes over...

[MosheFeingold]

23. There have been issues for years

I got a letter from my mom sent to me in Germany shortly after WWII sometime in 1960 -- back home in NYC.

About 3/4 of here letters never made it.

And this was AFTER the Army censors stopped doing their thing.

[thesquanderer]

8. "In over 200 years, I'm the only one who has been able to destoy the post office!" n/t

[dchill]

9. Rat bastards.

[Indyfan53]

12. Vote Early In Person

Trump sabotaged to post office! We can’t risk our ballots being delayed in the mail! Mask up and vote early in person!

[iluvtennis]

13. Wow. Just unbelievable. nt

[OMGWTF]

15. Not just "deep cuts by the Trump administration" it's SABATOGE by the Trump administration

[RainCaster]

16. Mussolini kept the railroads on time, Trump fails at everything

A job as simple as keeping the post office running, and he screws it up royally. What a loser.

[calimary]

18. K&R and Bookmarking!

I’ve got a couple of mail-related issues too.

We’ve all joked about the post office but despite that it’s the most popular entity out there. Recent polling had it first with something like 91% public approval.

[certainot]

19. your local rw/putin radio station has been setting this up for 20-30 years

[KS Toronado]

20. I believe mail-in ballots in red states will run fairly normal, the problem will be in blue states

Blue states/cities are where the mail sorting machines were taken out, this was done on
purpose by trumpf and DeNojoy for a reason. The question is what is that reason, it certainly
wasn't to help get every ballot counted. Are they attempting to flip blue states red for their
Electoral College votes? Don the Con will do everything he can to stay out of jail another 4
years. So would everybody having that much power. I encourage everyone voting by mail in
blue states to forego the post office wherever possible and hand deliver their ballots.

[SunSeeker]

22. 11 days to go from one end of L.A. to another! That is the result of DeJoy's intentional sabotage.

[Blue Owl]

24. Trump and DeJoy may go fuck themselves now

n/t

[dalton99a]

25. Seven days for a letter to go from L.A. to S.F.

Arrest that motherfucker

[House of Roberts]

26. All just to screw Jeff Bezos.

Fucking up the mail-in voting is a bonus.