In June 2020, Louis DeJoy was appointed as postmaster general of the United States, a title that rarely gets much attention in everyday discussions about politics. However, following cuts to the U.S. Postal Service’s operating budget as we head into a contentious presidential election during a pandemic, a Congressional hearing and at least 21 states planning to sue the U.S. Postal Service, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has become a household name.
Due to COVID-19 concerns, The New York Times reports that over 80 million voters could cast a ballot by mail this year, which is double the amount of ballots cast by mail in the 2016 presidential election. However, President Trump has refused to provide $25 billion to the U.S. Postal Service, with an additional $3.6 billion for mail-in voting, citing worries of increased voter fraud from mail-in voting. This claim is unfounded and baseless.
In the past week, three UNC System schools—NC State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and East Carolina University—have moved to all-online classes, hoping to give students the chance to move back home if they choose to. More recently, NC State is closing its residence halls to mitigate COVID-19 spread on campus, meaning that many students are moving further away from accessible polling locations, such as Talley Student Union.
With students moving away from their polling locations a little over two months prior to the election, voting by mail will become even more important for college students. College students have historically faced barriers to voting and the defunding of the U.S. Postal Service is another addition to these barriers.
Defunding the U.S. Postal Service in the middle of a pandemic is blatant voter suppression, even worse as college students move around the country.
We want to remind our representatives and senators that their silence on this topic has not gone unnoticed, and we urge them to speak out against voter suppression and the defunding of the U.S. Postal Service.
The North Carolina deadline to register to vote by mail is Oct. 9. We urge our readers to request mail-in ballots and vote by mail if they need to. Now more than ever, your vote matters; don’t let it go to waste.
This unsigned editorial is the opinion of Technician’s editorial board and is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief.
