Article by Tamara Caulkins
In an age of lightning-fast texts and emails, is the United States Postal Service (USPS) still necessary? Although it receives no tax dollars, it is considered a government agency and is required to provide service to all Americans. From sales of stamps and other services, the USPS maintains the largest physical and logistical infrastructure of any non-military government institution. It delivers more mail and packages than any other postal service in the world. And no matter where you live or to what U.S. location you are sending a letter, you pay the same for a First-Class postage stamp. Remarkable, right?!
Nevertheless, there have been many efforts to privatize the USPS and run it like a business. For example, under former Postmaster General DeJoy, overnight delivery from Ellensburg to Yakima was cut, some mail drop boxes were removed, and prices were raised. If U.S. Post Offices were operated solely as a business, rural services would be the first to be affected – they are simply not as lucrative as providing services in more densely populated areas.
Furthermore, Congress passed legislation in 2006 requiring the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for post-retirement health care costs seventy-five years into the future. No other agency has to do this. Yet in spite of these financial challenges, the USPS has continued to be among the most trusted and reliable of government services.
Mail-in voting was first offered to soldiers in the American Civil War. Many citizens of Washington state, including disabled and senior citizens, have voted by mail for decades. In 1991, Washington state legislators allowed any voter to sign up for an absentee ballot and keep automatically receiving them for future elections. When I spoke with Kittitas County Auditor Bryan Elliott last spring, he assured me that our elections are secure and invited me to watch election workers who were counting the mailed-in ballots for a special election. From the viewing room in the basement of the courthouse, anyone can watch this process in person. This is not the case with electronic voting systems.
There are many reasons the USPS is a crucial government service. It facilitates the circulation of newspapers, magazines, and books: studies show that people retain information better when they read hard copies of texts rather than on a screen. While the number of letters mailed is down, the number of packages mailed is up. The USPS is vital for small businesses and for delivering medications, certain legal documents, and payments for those without internet access, etc. It is worth noting that FedEx, UPS, etc., often use USPS services for their final deliveries.
In the very first Article of the U.S. Constitution (Section 8), the authors direct Congress “to establish Post Offices and post Roads” in the effort to “form a better union.” Is this founding document simply old-fashioned? I don’t think so! The postal service of the United States is as relevant and essential as it was when the Constitution was formulated 250 years ago. It should remain a public government agency dedicated to serving the American people.
This article co-published by Ellensburg Daily Record Newspaper on August 30, 2025. Tamara Caulkins is the Voting Education Chair for the League of Women Voters of Kittitas County. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Science and has taught in the Military Science program atCWU and in the Douglas Honors College. She also co-organizes Guitar in the Gallery, a series of classical guitar concerts at Gallery One.