By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
People depend on the post office for getting the word out for a lot of reasons.
Courts need to inform citizens that they have jury duty.
Citizens need to express their opinions to their congressional representatives.
Brides need to mail wedding invitations.
All those are important, said U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) in a telephone interview Monday. And he’s heard, and experienced, horror stories about postal failures about each of them.
Yet when thinking about this situation, there’s one number that sticks in Latta’s mind: 141. That’s the number of days until the November election. “We have to make sure every vote gets counted,” he said.
Earlier this month, Latta sent a letter to the Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service to request that mail from Northwest Oho be processed at plants either in Cleveland or Columbus instead of the USPS Michigan Metroplex Facility in Pontiac, Michigan.
There have been problems with mail delivery ever since the Toledo Processing Center was closed in 2012 and mail was handled through the Detroit area facility to be processed and sorted before it goes back to local post offices to be delivered.
The problem, he said, is not with the local post offices. The workers there provide excellent service.
Latta is worried about all the snags encountered when voters request absentee ballots, Boards of Election have to send out those applications , then the voter has to return that, and election officials have to send out the ballot, which the voter must then return. Some absentee ballots have just disappeared.
Not only are those votes not counted, he said, but it also casts doubt on the integrity of the elections process.
Those problems were most recently during the 2020 primary, which was conducted by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Latta said he knows more people will vote by mail this year than in the past because of concerns about coronavirus. He said he’s spoken to constituents who always vote on Election Day. Some have even make an occasion of it. Getting together with friends to vote first thing in the morning the going to breakfast. Not this year.
Latta said he’s received no satisfactory answers about how the problem will be addressed. He’s been to Metroplex to study the situation as have his staff.
“We have a problem that’s not getting fixed.”
That, however, does not lessen his belief in the value of the postal system.
The postal service delivers to the most remote locations, he said. “The post office is highly important.”
