In late September, amid congres-
sional pressure, a directive came
down from headquarters in Washington:
Starting eight days before the election,
local post- offi ce managers were expect-
ed to use ‘‘extraordinary measures’’
to accelerate the movement of ballots
— expediting their processing, taking
them straight to local election offi ces
and even delivering them on Sundays.
For the people who keep post offi ces
running, workdays lengthened to 12, 14,
even 16 hours. In October, the photogra-
pher Philip Montgomery traveled across
South Florida to document the eff orts
of those who labored, under pressure in
a swing state, to see Americans’ ballots
through to Election Day. Like Christo-
pher Payne, he witnessed a phase of this
historic election up close.
After ballots were dropped in a blue
box or handed to a letter carrier, they
were typically separated from the regular
mail, taken to a plant where they were
sorted by destination, delivered to the
post offi ce in the appropriate district and
then sent on to the local election offi ce.
Sometimes customers thanked postal
workers for their service. But sometimes
— perhaps prompted by the doubts
sowed by Trump about mail-in voting or
the headlines about persistent mail slow-
downs — the opposite happened. Postal
employees, accustomed to their work
being seen as crucial but ultimately bor-
ing, found it the subject of scrutiny. Cus-
tomers handed over their ballots, then
lingered at the counter with insistent
questions. ‘‘Are you going to lose my bal-
lot?’’ ‘‘Is it going to end up in the trash?’’
The floor of a postal facility in South Florida.
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