In the time of a pandemic, it is absolutely essential that we have reliable mail-in voting available to every American. But Donald Trump wants to disrupt mail-in voting and is deliberately sabotaging the post office.

When asked on the Fox Business Network about providing the funds for the U.S. Postal Service, Trump said, as summarized by Deb Riechmann of the Associated Press, that “he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money to make it harder for it to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.”

Though mail-in voting has not been shown to favor either Republicans or Democrats, Trump opposes additional funding for our U.S. Postal Service, erroneously claiming that mail-in voting favors Democrats.

In all the years our nation has used absentee balloting, there has never been major fraud. Our military has used it for more than 100 years, and over 22 states now have sufficient experience with mail-in ballots.

Trump’s new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has already put forward new regulations that are slowing our mail down dramatically. (It is hardly a coincidence that DeJoy has at least $30 million in holdings of XPO Logistics, a private competitor to the USPS.)

I urge everyone to speak out, to ensure a fair and safe election. Our democracy is at stake! Those who wish to vote in person on Nov. 3 may certainly do so, but those of us who wish to maintain personal safety must have the choice of mail-in voting – and our votes must arrive on time and be counted.

Marcy Leger
Bath