BY NICOLE KI
Around 30 local seniors protested at a Great Neck U.S. Postal Service office on Saturday to condemn mail service slowdowns following cost cuts by the Trump Administration as election season closes in.
The protestors joined over 700 nationwide #SavethePostOffice demonstrations today on Welwyn Road, holding signs that read “Save Our Elections” while chanting for the resignation of newly appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after a recent “operational pivot” on American mail caused massive mail delays, swift overtime cuts for mail carriers and outcries about voter suppression across the country.
The day of action for the national #SavethePostOffice protests on Saturday was organized by Move.org, the NAACP and the Working Families Party.
Patty Katz, president of Reach Out America, said the local, progressive nonprofit came out to criticize DeJoy’s and President Trump’s undermining of American participation in the democratic process this November and echoed concerns about voter suppression.
“Voting, taking post office boxes away, dismantling sorting machines and slowing down the process––the majority of states said they’re not going to be able to get the vote out on the ballots in time due to COVID, so we know so many people are going to be voting by mail.” Katz said. “So what does this administration do? Undermine the whole process and slow it down.”
And although DeJoy put a temporary suspension on the disruptive changes because of partisan backlash and promised yesterday at a Congressional hearing that Americans would get their mail on time, some Long Islanders are still wary––especially because millions like Nina Gordon, Great Neck resident and Reach Out America board member, rely on mail for medical prescriptions.
Gordon says the delays cause disruptions that some Americans can’t afford during a pandemic, especially rural communities who rely heavily on the postal service.
When asked about the safety risks of protesting during a pandemic for seniors who are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, Gordon said safely protesting outside with masks is a lesser concern compared to voting in a potentially unsafe polling location in November.
“As opposed to say going to an indoor location, waiting for hours in a room full of strangers and using a voting machine that may or may not have been sanitized properly––I don’t consider sitting outdoors on a beautiful day standing six feet apart as risking my health in the same way as going to vote in person,” said Gordon.
Another protestor, Dana Epifan, was carrying a USPS box with slogans that read “The USPS is in the Constitution!” and “VOTE.”
An experienced poll worker, and one of many this November that will work the country’s first election during a pandemic, Epifan was concerned about voter disenfranchisement and ultimately believes DeJoy and Trump’s attack on the nation’s postal service undermines its original meaning of being a service to the American people.
“It is written in the Constitution that we have postal service, and it should be accurate postal service,” Epifan said. “It should not be something that somebody comes in and says it’s not making money and it should be privatized.”
The overall message of the senior protestors and New York Assembly Democratic candidate Gina Sillitti was to push residents to vote.
“Democracy is on the line, all these things we care about are on the line… so voting is the most important way we can exercise our citizenship and to stand up and speak out about it,” Sillitti said.
