WEBVTT	#Elemental Media Engine(TM) 2.17.0.602927

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i am about to go to the first post

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office

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to mail off five letters that will go

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around the country to test whether or

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not

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mail delivery is slowed and where it

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slowed

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and how slow it is

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so we're sending 125 letters at least

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that's the hope

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to five different places around the

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country to see if mail gets delayed

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because mid-summer or so it was

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announced that the postal service was

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making cutbacks and those cutbacks have

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become very political because now people

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are worried it will hurt

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the chances of a good a fair election

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even before the election questions

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people are reporting that their

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medications are getting stalled their

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social security checks are getting

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stalled

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so the post office is really important

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people depend on it

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and so we are going to test it out and

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and we're starting here in manhattan

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beach hello how are you today

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i'm well i'm back i have five um

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certified mail return receipt things

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i just need to know when they get there

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how are you yes

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how about how long do you think it's

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taking for priority mail these days

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oh i'm sorry this is regular mail this

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is uh first class

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so three to five days so these should

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get

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oh so that it'll show me a promise well

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a

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a suggestion it'll give me a suggestion

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of when it's supposed to be our

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so we're going to uh 25 different post

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offices

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from the north in la county

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lancaster palmdale area to the south

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long beach where we're headed right now

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we're going to the east

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pomona we're going to the west malibu

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we're going to lots of places in between

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compton and inglewood and beverly hills

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and

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downtown l.a and boyle heights we just

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came back from bart

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we're just leaving gardena

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one of the things that happened this

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summer was that the u.s postal service

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started cutting

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back it cut back on mail

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sorting machines it cut back on overtime

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hours

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mail started to delay the post office

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has been

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run poorly for many many decades

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great people in the post office

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incredible people but they've had very

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bad leadership for many years so

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we'll get it straightened out i want to

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assure this committee and the american

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public

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that the postal service is fully capable

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and committed to delivering the nation's

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election mail

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securely and on time we decided to

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go to 25 post offices mail letters to

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five different places

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across the country and see

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whether there are the delays that people

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are talking about

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people have been talking about

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medications lost in

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the postal system for

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weeks and that's a real problem so we're

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driving down

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the 405 now toward long beach on the

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plus side

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to do all of these miles um the

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coronavirus has cut down on traffic

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um on the minus side we're going to be

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driving a long

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and now i need air conditioning because

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it's really hot it's 89 degrees

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we are in the middle of a heat wave on

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top of a pandemic

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on top of a general election that's very

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contested on top of

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northern california being on fire on top

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of

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calls for the end of systemic racism

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all this and its sweltering

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we'd hoped to send mail from 25 post

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offices

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but los angeles county had other ideas

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it's 4

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753 square miles and over three days

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we only made it to 20. but that was

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enough to see a pattern

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and it wasn't pretty overall just

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75 of the letters sent by the times

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that should have arrived within two

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business days actually got to their

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destinations on time

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this rate is substantially lower than

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the most recent postal service

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performance report

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which shows a 92.4 on time delivery rate

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in april may and june and

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seven of the 20 letters mailed from los

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angeles county to the san francisco bay

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area

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took seven days to arrive you can drive

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that far

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in less than seven hours we emailed the

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u.s postal service for comment

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a spokeswoman did not address our

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findings directly but she said that

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service has improved

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although the agency continues to quote

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identify and address

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some ongoing service issues end quote

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the moral of this story

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if you're planning to vote by mail in

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november and you want to make sure that

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your vote is counted

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you