If you plan on voting by mail, election officials say it’s best to do it as early as possible so your ballot gets to its destination well before Election Day, which is Nov. 3.

Postal officials have repeatedly said the agency has more than enough capacity to handle the surge of ballots this fall, and its leaders have committed to prioritizing election mail. But on-time delivery rates vary widely depending on where you live, and the service has been falling short of its internal goals to deliver all first-class mail within five days.

On top of that, each state has different rules on whether it accepts mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. Some policies are the subject of court cases and could change before Nov. 3, so voters should check with their local election officials if they’re unsure.

All that is to say, the earlier you mail your ballot, the better.

It has been a tumultuous few months for the Postal Service. This summer, the agency’s new leader, Louis DeJoy, a major donor to the GOP and President Donald Trump, set in motion a series of controversial policy changes that have delayed deliveries nationwide.

Then, not too long after DeJoy took over, Trump openly admitted he was starving the Postal Service of coronavirus relief money to make it harder for the agency to process ballots. The combination of Trump’s remarks and DeJoy’s policies have led to a lot of distrust in the agency and fears about political manipulation.

The Postal Service has been sued several times in multiple states over the policy changes and has been handed a series of bruising court decisions blocking them. One judge in Washington state called them “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service” before the election.

The Postal Service agreed Wednesday to reverse changes that had slowed mail service nationwide, settling a lawsuit filed by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. The changes had included reduced retail hours, removal of collection boxes and mail sorting machines, closure or consolidation of mail processing facilities, restriction of late or extra trips for timely mail delivery, and banning or restricting overtime. The agreement also requires the Postal Service to prioritize election mail.

So, if you’re worried about voting by mail, what should you do? Consider early voting options in your state, check if your area has ballot drop boxes or go to the polls on Election Day.

Otherwise, return your ballot early and don’t wait until the last few days.

Vision 2020 is a new series from the AP dedicated to answering commonly asked questions from our audience about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Submit your questions at: Vision2020@AP.org

. AP’s Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020.

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At this rate, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will be lucky if he isn’t arrested and tried for treason before a people’s tribunal. According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DeJoy is a “complicit crony” aiding Trump’s efforts to sabotage American democracy. She believes the two have hatched a plot to delay mail-in voting and disenfranchise countless Americans prior to the election. In tried-and-true fashion, President Trump has stoked suspicions by saying that he opposes a $25 billion Postal Service bailout in the latest Democratic COVID-19 relief bill.

According to Trump, blocking this measure — and $3 billion in election aid to the states — will prevent universal mail-in voting. But the bailout doesn’t have anything to do with mail-in voting, and given the billions of pieces of mail handled by the post office every week, it surely can handle the increased volume from mail-in voting. It is true that Postmaster General DeJoy is a major Trump donor. He made his fortune in shipping and logistics, though, and he was selected by the Postal Service’s board of governors.

Little did he know, when he took over the agency in June, that he’d soon have a starring role in the country’s latest psychodrama. Every change at the Postal Service is now seen through the prism of a belief that the agency is a tool of creeping authoritarianism. Letter collection boxes are being removed — never mind that this has been an ongoing process for years.

Underutilized boxes are decommissioned or moved to higher-traffic areas. In 2009, the Washington Post reported that 200,000 boxes had been shelved over the past two decades. In 2016, the inspector general noted that another 12,000 collection boxes had been cut over the previous five years. Letter collection boxes all of a sudden have big, red locks on them — well, yeah, as an off-hours device to prevent the theft of mail, also something the Postal Service has done for years. The Postal Service is deactivating mail-sorting machines — right, and there was a plan for this prior to DeJoy becoming postmaster general, and it has long been discussed in response to the declining volume of mail.

DeJoy is cutting back on overtime — indeed he is, because artificially swollen overtime is an enormous expense that he hopes to eliminate with a more rational delivery system. Democrats and much of the media make it sound as though the post office was an efficient, smooth-running agency before DeJoy took charge. In reality, the post office has lost nearly $80 billion since 2007, and it lost more than $2 billion last quarter. Unless the service finds a way to innovate, it is headed for bankruptcy. This is the impetus for DeJoy’s reforms, which should be welcomed by all the people now caterwauling about how essential the post office is to the American way of life.

DeJoy has been adamant that the Postal Service will do its job regarding mail-in ballots. The post office’s recent warnings to states that they should be mindful of how quickly ballots can be delivered were intended to avoid unrealistically late deadlines for mail-in voting that could create a train wreck in November. But in their inflamed state, Democrats want a villain. If not a foreign potentate, then the guy in charge of delivering the mail.

-Rich Lowry

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For more than 37 years Conrad Frick has been a familiar face at both the Main Post Office on Acacia Avenue by State Street and the Yale Station by True Value Hardware Store. On Thursday, October 31st he will serve his last patron and box his last letter. Conrad will leave the postal service but not really retire from work. He will be retiring to assist his wife with their RV Storage business on Santa Fe Street just north of the Mt,. San Jacinto Cementer.

“That’s about as close to a graveyard that I intend to be for a long time., he says.
I believe him because Conrad is as hale and hearty as any 19 year old when it comes to the work ethic. During an hour long interview as we sat gazing out the window of a secluded house on the far east end of Acacia Avenue, a place once occupied by his deceased parents…we talked about his life while late afternoon birds chirped in the greenery outside. I turned on the recorder as this gentle giant of a man related a story that should impress any young American as a “firstborn” on American soil of immigrants newly arrived from Germany. 

‘”I was born in Hemet Hospital on Monday April 11, 1955, 2 and one half hours after April Sunday. I was the first of two born in America out of 7 children. My parents were immigrants from Germany. Dad was a baker at the resort in Murrieta Hot Springs.”
Conrad attended a small school in French Valley and later went to School in Winchester. He was in the first graduating class of the then new High School located at Stanford and Stetson in Hemet.

“‘I grew up in a family rather poor in finances but rich in dignity and integrity. My father died in 1998 and my mother in 2007. They were wonderful people. As a youngster I didn’t appreciate how they struggled to keep the family fed and housed but as I grew older I learned to appreciate just how really remarkable they were.”
Conrad did not have it easy himself. At the age of 12 he began working on his uncle’s farm in French Valley. “I spent 7 summers doing a man’s work. I was on a pull-type harvester, the header-tender. That first summer I made $140 and it was like I’d broke the mint. It was heavy work. During Christmas vacations I generally learned how to do the work of a grown farm hand.

“I graduated high school in 1973 during the late years of Richard Nixon as president when we suffered price rises and gas rationing. It was tough times. My parents really struggled to make a living: seemed like every day a new price tag went on the grocery shelves. New stickers on the shelves with prices always higher, not lower.  I realized we were poor. I made up my mind that wasn’t going to happen to me.”
In 1976 he moved to Germany to work as a welder. He had family there and as he says, they welcomed him like royalty. “I was an American citizen and that really meant something!”

“I worked in a machine shop for 18 months. Although I was never what you call a ‘papered’ machinist I could weld and do other machine shop work along with those who were. While I was in Germany, I enlisted in the United States Army and was sent back to Fort Knox, Kentucky to take my basic training. I served my four year hitch and then it took me five years to finally become employed at the Hemet Post Office. I remember my first pay check. It was for one week and the amount was $503. For the first time I sported four new tires on the truck I was driving at the time. My next pay check was a regular two weeks pay and every two weeks thereafter. It was like riding the gravy train for me. One of the first things I did was make sure my parents rent was cut in half. I did everything I could to help them, remembering how hard they struggled to feed, house and clothe me.”
He began work in the back room of the post office and worked there and eventually was trained to work at the front desk.

“I worked the front counter at Acacia for 20 years,. I remember the lines being out the door and I’d often be the only one servicing them. It seemed that my fellow workers were on breaks that took as long as lunch breaks.. But my job was to do my job, not theirs.”
He moved down to the Yale Sub-station in November 2005.
“I worked with some very wonderful people over the years, only one that I did not get along with very well. I believe he may have had some mental problems,” jConrad laughs, adding, “My favorite customers were the little old ladies. They have been so wonderful to me. There aren’t as many of them around anymore,. I’ve seen a tremendous exodus in retirements, deaths or moving away,”
How many postmasters has he endured??
“Oh, my god. Innumerable, More than thirty I would guess. They don’t last long here in Hemet. Our postal system here has never been accused of being well-run. One of them, I won’t mention his last name but I believe they called him Mike, absolutely blew the chance we had to take over the old WalMart building across from the Hemet Valley Mall. The deal was set to go when, at the last minute he dropped the ball and we lost it. There may have been some political involvement I don’t know, but it had plenty of access for parking trucks, employees vehicles and customer parking.”

Does he feel sad about moving on?
“Not really. It is not like I’m going to a retirement home or anything like that. I’m active with my wife in her work and I have charities and community events that I am involved in. No, I’m going to do just fine and enjoy life, not just retirement.”
Conrad is a self-made individual who had the opportunity to live the American dream and hopped aboard the dream train that it would well behoove some of those living on the streets to take advantage of. Just sayin.
rustystraiat@gmail.com

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