To our utter dismay, the National Association of Letter Carriers — the union representing the nation’s 290,000 active and retired postal workers, many of whom will handle millions of ballots as part of the massive vote-by-mail system — announced on Sept. 12 its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

As a result of the NALC endorsement, American voters are being asked to trust in an election system in which a key part of the process of casting and counting votes — specifically, mail-in ballots — is controlled by an organization loyal to one candidate.

Even back in Sept. 29, 2020, U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, expressed concerns — similar to ours’ — about “the U.S. Postal Service’s strong reliance on highly partisan unions for election-related operations, including handling of ballots, and the risk it poses to Americans’ confidence in election results,” as reported in oversight.house.gov.

In a 2020 letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, Comer called on the USPS “to ensure fair and efficient operations for the election and consider a program of monitors from the Republican and Democratic parties in postal facilities to help mitigate concerns,”  the website noted. He also requested information “regarding oversight of USPS’ employee mail-in ballot programs and the safeguards put in place to ensure compliance with federal ethics law.”

We remain skeptical about the USPS’ ability to do its job objectively with mail-in ballots and, instead, fear it just might try to rig the election.

Predictably, the Pew Research Center reported in July that “Republicans and Democrats continue to have vastly divergent views on vote-by-mail.” with 82 percent of Democrats saying it should be freely available without excuse — and only 37 percent of Republicans agreeing.

We urge all citizens who still believe its worth holding on to the principles of our constitutional republic  — established by the Founding Fathers  — to monitor the USPS, among other entities, to ensure a free and fair election on Nov. 5.