This is going to be extremely difficult to undo. https://twitter.com/_HeatherWalker/status/1296122043772133382

The inversion of the usual roles in labor/management disputes is notable here: USPS MANAGEMENT is removing automation that replaces workers, over the objections of the union.

All that said, while this pointless destruction of postal equipment is clearly terrible and possibly criminal, it is still not clear by how much USPS capacity has actually been reduced and what impact that will have on the ability of the USPS to handle ballots in November.

It's possible that the impact is very significant; it's also possible that it's relatively small. We don't yet know, and concluding that the removal of this equipment makes mail voting infeasible in November would be premature based on currently available information.

Right now is when states and localities are making decisions about how voting will proceed in November. If you wanted to create the IMPRESSION that the USPS has been so damaged that it can't reliably handle ballots, images of sorting machines being trashed are very compelling.

The crux of the problem is this: many jurisdictions will have absolutely no idea how many of their voters will cast their ballots at local precincts on election day and how many will cast them by mail until very late, possibly not until election day.

So that means they have to essentially prepare 100% capacity for BOTH. It’s like running two elections simultaneously. But they generally don’t have the resources - people, money, etc - for that. USPS uncertainty could push voters to polling places who’d planned to vote by mail.

But those polling places are already likely to be understaffed due to COVID, and might be further overwhelmed by voter mistrust of USPS. It’s a very difficult situation.

So getting a realistic assessment of the true state of the USPS as soon as possible is really, really important. “Assume the worst” isn’t sufficient here.