Explained: The US Postal Service's funding crisis, and what it means for the 2020 elections

• Financial problems within the US Postal Service could keep votes from being counted in the 2020 elections.
• More Americans than ever are expected to vote by mail this year, and some doubt the post office will be able to deliver and return applications and ballots on time.
• Federal intervention has also resulted in fewer machines to count ballots.

An avalanche of problems within the US Postal Service could keep votes from being counted in 2020.

The pandemic is prompting more Americans than ever to vote by mail in the 2020 elections. And since the Postal Service has a monopoly over letter delivery, those ballots will have to go through the post office.

But years of financial problems, recent budget cuts, and a strain from the pandemic is slowing the system down — threatening our democracy. We enlisted Business Insider politics reporter Grace Panetta to explain the unfolding postal crisis and how it might affect the upcoming election.

The problems begin with sorting machines, which are crucial to a quick delivery. But the Postal Service has been planning on dismantling them since May. Many machines have already been removed from distribution centers across the country, which could slow down all sorts of mail delivery, including ballots.

Mailed-in ballots "don't get special treatment on their own in the postal system for being election mail," Panetta said. "They're just processed in with all the other first-class mail."

Mail-in voting includes both universal mail-in ballots and absentee ballots. Some states send mailed ballots to every registered voter, while others require voters to apply for an absentee ballot ahead of the election.

That process results in a lot of mail — and state election offices depend on the USPS to deliver it.

If the Postal Service cannot deliver and return applications and ballots on time, those votes might not be counted.

But there are other options for voters concerned about mail delays. Some states also offer other ways to return your ballot, like in drop boxes or by hand-delivering them to local election offices.

"As a voter, you have a lot of agency over making sure your vote gets counted even in a crazy pandemic time," Panetta said. "If you are voting by mail, you should go and request your ballot now. Do not wait to go get it. Do not wait until the last minute."

Much like US states' pandemic strategy revolved around "flattening the curve" of coronavirus spread so as not to overwhelm the healthcare system, voters should try to flatten the curve of mail-in ballot requests "to make sure officials are not slammed at the last minute in mid-October with a ton of requests they can't process," she said.

The Postal Service was already dealing with mail delays thanks in part to reforms implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Those reforms led to cost-cutting measures like slashing overtime and limiting late delivery shifts.

Financial problems at the USPS aren't new, but President Donald Trump's recent attacks on universal mail-in voting brought national attention to the reforms. Among other attacks, Trump falsely claimed that "80 million ballots" were sent to Americans who did not request them. (It's unclear where Trump got the 80 million figure, and the unsolicited documents sent to some Americans were ballot request forms, not the ballots themselves.)

"He's been trying to undermine faith in the democratic process for almost half a decade now," Panetta said. "The other part of it is, the pandemic has been really, really scary for people and it's undermined a lot of people's faith and trust in their government.

DeJoy told senators that the Postal Service will no longer be dismantling machines prior to the election, but those that were already removed won't be replaced.

He also said that postal employees will be approved for overtime to process mail-in votes, reversing the reduction in overtime opportunities he had overseen in July.

In a contentious House hearing this week, DeJoy promised that mail-in voting would be safe.

"I am not engaged in sabotaging the election," DeJoy said in the hearing. "The American people have the commitment of the 650,000 men and women of the Postal Service that we will do everything within our power and structure to deliver the ballots on time."

But many worry this isn't enough, especially because of issues processing ballots during the primaries.

"Election offices dealt with a massive, massive influx of people requesting mail ballots at the last minute," Panetta said. "And all of those applications had to be processed. And unfortunately there were people, a lot of people in some states, who didn't get their ballots at all, or got their ballots on the day of the election or when it was too late to return them."

In July, the Postal Service sent a letter to 46 states and Washington, DC, warning that their registration deadlines might not provide enough time for the agency to deliver ballots.

And though concerns about a contentious election are at the forefront of the Postal Service debate, other problems will persist after November.

"More people are interested and concerned about the post office than maybe ever before because of the impending election. But it's important to step back and look at the big picture and the financial problems with the Postal Service are not going away," Panetta said.

"These are big, existential questions about the post office's future, and what it will look like that are not going to go away after the election."