USPS Leaving International Mail Union Set to Disrupt U.S. Elections
U.S. military and citizens living or working overseas might soon find postage costs an expensive obstacle for submitting an absentee ballot. Jared Dearing, state election director in Kentucky, says the United States Postal Service (USPS) plans to pull out of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which could cause international mailing costs for a U.S. ballot to top $60.
Dearing voiced his concerns at the recent EAC’s Election Security Forum. He said he would be required to send out ballots prior to a final USPS determination on leaving the union. According to the Department of Defense Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), as amended by the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, requires absentee ballots be sent to UOCAVA voters at least 45 days before a federal election.
“How do we get word out to voters that if this ballot comes to you now and you do not submit it within weeks, it could cost you $60 to mail it — and that is if they agree to deliver it in the first place?” said Dearing.
The USPS confirmed it’s planning to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the primary cooperation forum between postal services in its 192 member countries. In other words, it’s the UPU that keeps postage between countries at reasonable rates and provides for delivery via mutual agreements.
The beef between the U.S. and the UPU appears to center on the terminal dues system, which is how postal services pay each other for international mail deliveries. The USPS finds in its report that the global terminal dues system doesn’t fully compensate the USPS for actual domestic processing and delivery costs.
“While the United States is preparing to leave the UPU in October, if a solution can be found that eliminates the economic distortion caused by the current terminal dues system on U.S. businesses, then the United States will continue its participation in the UPU,” said Martha (Marti) Johnson, USPS spokesperson in Washington, D.C.
“Because the U.S. may no longer be a member of the UPU by mid-October, the Postal Service is undertaking parallel efforts to ensure the continued exchange of international mail items even if the negotiations to remain in the UPU are unsuccessful,” said Johnson. “This includes addressing and prioritizing military mailing issues.”
Johnson declined to elaborate or define what those “parallel efforts” are, whether they could be operational in time for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, or what they might cost voters abroad.
“This gives me great concern about my overseas voters and voters abroad. It grieves me to think that I have military voters who are protecting our right to vote but might not be able to mail their ballot in,” said Dearing.
Dearing asked EAC commissioners to help resolve the issue.
“If there is anything that can be done to intervene on some level, maybe provide guidance to the states,” Dearing said. “If there is anything you can do for guidance on how we should treat this and how we should notify voters of how they can fully involve themselves in the voting experience, in making sure their ballots count, that would be of immense value.”
The EAC commissioners didn’t immediately comment on or respond to his request.
It was unclear whether the technology community is getting involved to help find a solution or at least provide an electronic alternative to mailed ballots. If vendors are going to step up, they would have to do so quickly in order to have time to be certified by the EAC prior to election dates.
Isn’t it strange this just happens to coincide with the US election, especially since the military vote mostly Republican. This has the appearance of yet another democrat plan to reduce Republican votes. It does appear the military could airlift the ballots to the US for insertion into the mail system in the US. I recall issues with getting ballots back in time for the previous three elections.
Hey the USPS is run by a board of directors appointed by the president of the United States. Congress especially the Democratic house has very little power over USPS. Take your nutcase theories out of here.
This is actually a Trump policy, designed to help US businesses compete with Chinese sellers using ePacket. It’s currently cheaper to ship a 2 pound package from China to New York than from New Jersey to New York. This article gives no context.
It is actually free for any Chinese business to send mail to the US via China’s e-packet method. Any time a Chinese vendor- even an eBay sellee- charges you a mailing fee using e-packet- it is an added cost to cover free shipping. Tough to compete with free.
It’s really only packages that should be affected, yet they clump mail in there to interfere with our elections. What a union move.
This is old news. It has nothing to do with voting. It’s part of the Trump administration’s plan to restrict
the foreign goods flow into the US. The because of the UPU countries like China can offer free shipping on a lot of goods direct to customers. Sorry to blow up your conspiracy theory. It just plain old throwing out the baby with the bath water.
As a postal employee, we process incredible amounts of foreign ( Chinese mail) with little or no compensation to the USPS. Imagine a semi full of those little packages you get from Wish, and the USPS not being paid to process. ( do you really think the USPS gets any money for a package when you only pay $2 for an item, including postage). Then add to that we deliver ALL absentee ballots, even if there is NO postage on it, whether it is local or across the country. Unfortunately the USPS can’t keep losing money.
Military mail also is usually sent through military post offices at US rates.
I work at the Post Office. This is all about Chinese companies being able to ship direct small packages for next to nothing. I ordered a simple charge cable with free shipping for under $2. The cable and shipping direct from China under $2. I then sent the cable to my father in it’s original packaging 200 miles away the least expensive service and it was $2.45 just for shipping. China is obviously paying nothing. To send the cable from here to Canada would have been over $10 just shipping. Even if I had a made in the USA t shirt company it would be better to make them here, send a ship load to China and then small order ship them back to homes in the USA. Thank God USPS is dropping this theft of a “deal” that kills US businesses.
Why can’t we just raise the rates in China? Why blow up the whole thing?
While Chinese rates are cheaper than US rates US rates are cheaper than many other developed countries. If the US establishes the principle of compensation for cheaper Chinese rates other countries will be able to seek compensation for cheaper US rates.