Poll: 72 percent say postal service doing good job despite recent changes

Nearly three-quarters of Americans approve of the job the U.S. Postal Service is doing, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released Monday.

Seventy-two percent of respondents rated the Postal Service as doing an “excellent” job, according to the survey. The number is largely the same as the results of similar surveys in 2014 and 2017, suggesting recent changes in service have not moved the needle on the organization’s popularity.

However, the survey also found that respondents said they have noticed their mail has recently taken longer to arrive. Forty-two percent reported receiving mail later in the day, while 37 percent said less mail is being delivered than usual. About 17 percent of respondents said changes in service have caused them major problems. More than 60 percent of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike reported such issues.

Many of the Postal Service’s changes have occurred under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a donor to President Trump who took office earlier this year. Due to the pandemic, an unprecedented number of ballots in the 2020 election are expected to be returned through the mail. The president has repeatedly claimed mail-in voting is rife with fraud, contradicting experts, and earlier this year suggested he would not agree to additional Postal Service funding to prevent universal mail-in voting.

The poll found broad skepticism among Democrats and independents about Trump’s rhetoric on the subject. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said Trump attacks mail-in voting “to stop people from voting against him,” including 93 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents. Only 16 percent of Republicans said the same.

Despite this, the poll also found more voters believed their vote would be counted if they voted in person than by mail. Ninety percent were confident their vote would be counted if they voted early, while 94 percent said the same about voting on Election Day. A smaller majority, 69 percent, was confident their vote would be counted if they voted by mail.

Pollsters surveyed 1,929 Americans from Aug. 24 to 31. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.