The intrepid Arthur wrote a series of posts, going back to January 2013, about how New Zealand Post had proposed reducing mail delivery to as little as three days a week starting in 2015 to cope with falling volumes.” He noted. “I get most of my former mail—bills, statements, newsletters, etc.—by email. Hardly anyone I know sends greeting cards anymore, and no one sends personal letters. I don’t, either. I also don’t subscribe to any paper magazines (though I have subscriptions to a couple electronic versions). We pay all our bills online one way or another.”
I got a taste of that recently. My subscription for USPS Informed Delivery told me we would get 14 pieces of mail on Friday, January 23. We should have gotten 8 pieces each on Saturday, the 24th, and Monday, the 26th, but we got NONE. Instead, we got 17 pieces on Tuesday, the 27th, including the 3 due that day. None of the 10 pieces arrived on Wednesday, the 28th, but they came, along with the 6 for Thursday, on the 29th.
Part of the volume is that my mother-in-law moved to a new facility, which does not include mail delivery. So her mail comes to our house. In fact, most days, her items outnumber the pieces for my wife, my daughter, and me combined.
Voting
One of Arthur’s concerns in 2024 was whether his ballot would be counted. Americans in this country have new reason to worry. “House Republicans are rolling out a massive election overhaul package ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, including new voter ID requirements as well as limitations on how and when votes are cast.
“The Committee on House Administration is unveiling new legislation on Thursday called the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act, which would impose new federal standards on national elections across the U.S.”
From The Hill: “The bill would require mail-in ballots to be received by the close of polls on election day to be counted, making an exception for members of military stations overseas. Several states currently allow mail-in ballots to be counted if received up to a certain point after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day — often leading to delays in determining election winners in states like California, where the vast majority of ballots are cast by mail.”
So, if the mail is delayed by bad weather or cuts to the Postal Service, there is a very real possibility of disenfranchising citizens.
“Nationalizing” the vote
“In addition to requiring photo ID when casting a ballot and citizenship verification upon voter registration, the bill implements restrictions on how states administer and maintain their election systems — some of which became flashpoints in the 2020 election, fueling [FOTUS’s] claims of election fraud.”
There are other worrisome franchise issues. FBI searches Fulton County elections office in Georgia. AG Pam Bondi’s letter to MN Gov. Tim Walz (D) called on the state to provide the DOJ with access to unredacted voter rolls, which contain identifying information such as driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
And now, the DOJ is suing more than 20 states in a bid to open voter rolls to federal challenges aimed at purges. And he said it out loud, declaring that the Republican Party should “nationalize the voting” in the US and take away individual states’ power to administer their elections. They want to steal the 2026 election if we let them.