The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday that no equipment from the Yakima post office has been removed, no staff has been laid off and no mail processing operations have moved to Spokane.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy proposed operational changes earlier this year to address revenue losses from lower mail volumes. The changes, which included a hiring freeze and consolidated sorting operations, were met with public outcry, concern about election mailings and federal lawsuits.
DeJoy suspended the proposed changes Aug. 18 “to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail,” he said in a statement.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and other states filed a lawsuit to block the postal service changes and require USPS to treat all election mail as first-class mail.
A motion filed Sept. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington provided detail on possible changes. It alleged three of the state’s five processing centers, including Yakima’s, are “no longer processing outgoing mail” but rather transporting outgoing mail to Seattle or Spokane for processing.
“A letter sent from Yakima, Washington to a location across town will be sent all the way to Spokane for processing and then back to Yakima,” the filing alleged. “This will slow delivery time. This may also move up collection times, particularly in rural areas, and make it less likely for ballots to get postmarked in a timely way.”
The filing also alleged that six delivery bar code sorters had been removed, or would be removed, from Seattle, Tacoma and Yakima.
USPS Seattle spokesman Ernie Swanson said in August that no changes were being made at the Yakima post office. On Tuesday, he said that remains true for the processing center, which he said hasn’t seen operational changes in the past seven years.
USPS: No changes in Yakima
Swanson said Yakima has never stopped processing outgoing mail and no equipment has been removed.
“The Yakima Post Office continues to process all outgoing mail. No mail processing machines have been removed,” he said. “No delivery bar code sorters have been removed in Yakima.”
He added that DeJoy pledged there will be no significant equipment changes anywhere in the U.S. prior to Election Day, Nov. 3, and also said no layoffs are planned for Yakima postal workers.
Some people who have been watching the national situation, and also have experienced mail delays since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, have their doubts.
Yakima resident Clayton Ice, who described himself as a “news junkie,” said he first became wary when shipments from his Amazon Prime account started arriving later than expected. His suspicion strengthened after he mailed a birthday card to his granddaughter in Oregon, which he says usually takes about two days to arrive, and heard from the family that the card arrived two weeks later.
“It’s not the level of service we are accustomed to,” he said.
Ice said he and his wife were concerned about what the seeming delay could mean for their election ballots, which will be mailed to voters from the Yakima County Auditor’s Office in mid-October.
“We’re going to go to the (county elections) drop box. That’s the solution,” he said. “We just don’t trust mailing in our ballots.”
Local election officials
Yakima County Elections Manager Kathy Fisher said she’s not worried. The county has been processing ballots by mail since 2005, during which the USPS has gone through many changes without problems for elections, she said.
“We have a great relationship with the Yakima main post office, and we’ve never experienced any issues with mailing or receiving ballots in a timely manner,” Fisher said this week. “If the primary was any indication of the quality of service from USPS, we are looking forward to receiving ballots for this upcoming election cycle.”
Fisher added that that the red county ballot drop boxes are always an option for voters, especially on Election Day. She added that voters using the blue USPS collection boxes should make sure they drop off their ballots prior to the last pickup time indicated.
The USPS encourages voters to send their ballots back at least one week prior to any state deadline to allow for postmarking, transport and processing by election officials.
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September 23, 2020 at 05:00PM
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USPS reiterates that Yakima mail processing hasn't moved - Yakima Herald-Republic
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