POST OFFICE PANIC.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

The Postal Service has long faced financial problems. Will it be able to handle millions of mail-in ballots in November's presidential election? BY

When Rhiannon Hampson, a farmer in coastal Maine, went to her post office to pick up a recent delivery of newly hatched chicks, the box was eerily silent.

"We could hear a few, very faint peeps," Hampson says. "Out of 500, there were maybe 25 alive. They were staggering. It was terrible."

For decades, postal carriers have delivered day-old chicks in cardboard boxes to small farmers and families with backyard henhouses. But this summer, postal delays have wreaked havoc with the tradition, and chicks around the country have arrived dead.

The delays that became apparent in the late summer are the latest sign of crisis at an agency that has been plagued with financial troubles for a long time. The problems have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and deep concerns have arisen that the Postal Service won't be able to deliver millions of mail-in ballots fast enough during the November presidential election.

Amid these challenges, President Hump has been attacking the Postal Service, calling it "a joke," and refusing to support additional funding. Democrats say he's trying to deter mail-in voting to help his chances in the election.

Americans depend on the post office to deliver paychecks, medicines, and the products we buy online. But due to the shift to email, texting, and electronic bill paying, the amount of mail the agency handles has dipped more than 30 percent in the past decade, and that has meant it takes in far less money.

In 1970, Congress mandated that the Postal Service support itself through its revenues--essentially, what people pay for stamps and shipping--rather than depending on taxpayer funding. But the last time the agency made a profit was 2006; it's been losing money since.

Part of the post office's financial woes stem from restraints imposed by Congress: It's required by law to deliver mail six days a week to everyone in the U.S.--no matter how remote their location--and it's not allowed to raise the price of a first-class stamp by more than the rate of inflation. A stamp today costs 55 cents; 20 years ago, it cost 33 cents.

"A lot of the stuff they do is not commercially viable," says Kevin Kosar, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who has long studied the post office. "Hauling all sorts of stuff to Alaska is not cheap, but Alaskans don't pay higher...