R Street Institute

Policy Studies Regulatory Reform

USPS Capacity for Vote by Mail

by Nick Zaiac
July 22, 2020
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Key Points

USPS has enough excess capacity to handle a surge in mailed ballots.
The Postal Service has established, well-funded oversight bodies to ensure ballots will arrive safely and those who negligently lose ballots will be punished.
Localized COVID-19 outbreaks are the biggest and hardest to manage risk. But USPS experience with moving mail in natural disasters gives it a leg up in limiting delayed ballot returns.

While vote by mail will be new to many, and USPS is a far from a perfect institution, the agency has proven capable of reliably moving government documents for decades. Accordingly, there is little question that, as it has done so many times in the past, it will rise to the occasion…and deliver.

Press release: USPS will rise to the occasion and deliver in the November election season

Image credit:  Samantha Gatesman

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