I’m not one to bash the USPS. For two decades, my business-related financial transactions went through the mail. The only time a check ever got “lost in the mail” is when a client sent it to my prior address. To within rounding error, in all that time, the USPS had more-or-less a 100% success rate.
But for this post, I’m going to make an exception.
Every vote counts … eventually
I vote by mail. It’s easier than voting in person. The only drawback I’ve ever noted is that it costs the government more to process a vote cast that way.
We just had primary elections here in Virginia. I mailed my ballot in way early. Or so I thought.
Two weeks elapsed between the time my mail carrier picked up my ballot at my house, and the time Fairfax County finally received it. One day after election day. The destination — Fairfax County Government Center — is about nine miles from my house.
I don’t know the extent to which the need to scan these ballots slows them down. There’s bar code on the envelope, which is how they track it. But it doesn’t seem like that ought to slow things down that much.
Similarly, my son has been waiting for a paycheck from the City of Fairfax for going on two weeks now. In that case, it’s just five miles from my house to the Fairfax City offices.
There have been rumors of difficult conditions at my local post office (Vienna VA) for some years now. Post Office starting salaries aren’t all that high, in this high-cost-of-living area. I’ve heard they’ve had a hard time keeping the place staffed. So I wonder if most of the holdup is local.
Meanwhile, the USPS still says that a first-class letter should be delivered within one to five business days.
For $0.63, and free pickup from my home, I really don’t have the right to complain. Much.
I’ll either adapt to the new reality of ultra-slow first-class mail in this area, and just mail in the ballot that much sooner. Or I’ll drive the 18-mile round trip to drop my ballot off at Government Center.
In any case, the new reality of ultra-slow mail gives an ironic twist to the first-class stamp.
