Santa Monica Save The Post Office Rally Planned For Saturday
SANTA MONICA, CA — Santa Monica residents ready to stand up and defend the Post Office will have a chance to make their voices heard this Saturday.
Moveon.org will sponsor "Save the Post Office Saturday," and hold rallies across the country, including one in Santa Monica at 11 a.m.
The rally will start at the Santa Monica Post Office at 1217 Wilshire Blvd., near 12th Ct. Participants are urged to wear masks, bring hand sanitizer and keep their physical distance from others.
Nationwide reports of Post office cutbacks, locked dropboxes, and slowed delivery times have become a front page topic, especially with mail-in ballots expected to play a sizeable role in the 2020 election due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A mail collection box was removed outside a post office in Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood this month. Google Maps satellite image of the post office at 2720 Neilson Way shows a collection box was at the location. At the location, all that remains are the cement imprints from the mail collection box. The location serves a local residents, including several senior housing locations along the shore.
The Post Office scored a minor victory Tuesday when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a high-profile Republican donor who has given over $1.2 million to the Trump campaign, promised to pause certain changes until after the November election.
"The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall," DeJoy wrote on the USPS website. "Even with the challenges of keeping our employees and customers safe and healthy as they operate amid a pandemic, we will deliver the nation's election mail on time and within our well-established service standards. The American public should know that this is our number one priority between now and election day. The 630,000 dedicated women and men of the Postal Service are committed, ready and proud to meet this sacred duty."
However, the vague language and the eventual implementation of Dejoy's reforms left many worried in the long run. Many organizers still urge voters to drop off ballots in-person, and stress the need to keep pushing back against proposed changes to the essential service.
"'Paused'" is not enough," Councilmember David Ryu wrote on Twitter. "These policies must be stopped, reversed, and the USPS must be given the $25 Bn allocated by House Democrats over three months ago."
- Patch Editors Kenan Draughorne and Nicole Charky contributed to this report.
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This article originally appeared on the Santa Monica Patch
