Is USPS prepared to handle mail-in ballots? Concerns grow over delays, crime
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- U.S. lawmakers are hearing from Philadelphians about problems with the postal service. The postal service's mail delivery performance has dropped, and in the last three years, robberies of mail carriers have more than tripled.
The lawmakers are concerned about whether the postal service is prepared to handle mail-in ballots during the upcoming election.
After reports of mail getting stolen, the key House Oversight Committee held a field hearing Wednesday morning at Temple University. The hearing covered stolen mail, attacks on carriers and mail-in ballots. These are postal problems experienced all across southeastern Pennsylvania
"There have always been issues, man. So you can't do anything about it. You just got to wait it out," James Mackie, of Germantown, said.
For 14 years, Mackie has lived across the street from the post office in Germantown. Recently, he says mail delivery has been inconsistent, arriving at non-traditional times and on non-traditional days.
"We get mail on Sundays and I don't think you're supposed to get mail on Sundays, do you?" Mackie said.
Local problems with the postal service were the topic at the congressional hearing Wednesday morning.
"What I'm interested in finding out is what works and what doesn't work," Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean said.
Among the issues the committee focused on were longer than expected delivery times and attacks on carriers, which according to the committee, have more than tripled since 2018. There has also been a marked increase in mail theft.
"We share community concerns about recent mail theft from collection boxes and robberies of letter carriers in Pa. and other parts of the country," Gary Vaccarella, with the U.S. Postal Service, said.
Eyewitness News covered Cara Graeff and Conor Lyons' story earlier this year. Days before their wedding, they had a check for about $20,000 stolen from a mailbox in Fishtown. The check was altered and deposited into another account.
"To lose that much at the 11th hour and know that it hadn't gone to where it was intended to go was really, really scary," Graeff said.
While improvements on delivery times have been made, congressional members say that was because the postal service lengthened their delivery times, and not because service has gotten better.
"If the postal service is in any way shape or form broken, that has a ripple effect on so many different aspects of everyone's life," Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said.
Graeff was able to eventually get a refund for her stolen funds.
Committee members say they are going to keep working on overall postal service improvements now in anticipation of an influx of mail-in ballots for this year's midterm elections.