Some voting rights experts question why the Postal Service would remove any mailbox during a pandemic when more voters than ever are expected to cast ballots by mail. The Postal Service removed boxes during construction projects in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.Įven if this year's removals track with historical averages, 2020 has been anything but a normal year. Rusty bolts embedded in the concrete are still visible. In Eugene, Oregon, at least 21 are gone, culled from locations with multiple boxes that now have one or two. It was supposed to reopen this spring but still hasn’t. In Ashland, Massachusetts, four boxes in the post office went offline when the building closed after mold was discovered in the basement. Reporters found boxes had been removed on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Broadway in New York City and on 10 Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan. Reporters across the USA TODAY Network checked on 271 of those boxes in 20 states and confirmed that 186 were not there. On average, from 2010 through 2019, the Postal Service reports it removed 3,258 drop boxes a year. But between a pandemic, a presidential election and a president who is fanning the flames of suspicion that he’s sabotaging the Postal Service to suppress mail-in voting, Americans are now paying close attention to every cut the post office makes. The blue boxes have been disappearing for decades. In the meantime, across the United States, missing mailboxes had become a political hot button. They didn’t return until Aug. 21, the same day Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified to a Senate committee about postal cuts. In all, more than 30 mailboxes disappeared from the city’s streets that day. In front of the offices of the Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY Network, a reporter asked the worker why he was taking the boxes. Protests after George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer had taken a destructive turn the night before.

postal worker rolled through downtown Columbus, Ohio, in late May, stopping to hoist iconic blue mailboxes onto a flatbed truck.

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