US election: Viral photos claim Donald Trump stealing mailboxes

A series of viral photos claim US President Donald Trump is attempting to sabotage the US Postal Service to steal the upcoming election.

A series of viral photos have been misleadingly used to spread claims that US President Donald Trump is attempting to sabotage the US Postal Service to steal the upcoming election.

Mr Trump has voiced concerns in recent weeks about Democrats’ push for expanded mail-in voting, arguing it will lead to a rise in voter fraud.

He argues he is not opposed to absentee ballots, which the voter must apply for, but rather universal mail-in voting schemes in states like California and Nevada, where ballots are automatically sent to every registered voter.

Democrats say they want more people to cast mail-in ballots to prevent exposure to the coronavirus. They have accused Mr Trump of attempting to suppress the vote – and pre-emptively cast doubt on the results should he lose.

Former President Barack Obama has accused his successor of trying to “actively handicap” the Post Office, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called an emergency sitting of the House of Representatives next week to address to supposed crisis.

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IF YOU CAN PROTEST IN PERSON, YOU CAN VOTE IN PERSON!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020

Comments by Donald Trump last week appeared to vindicate the conspiracy theories, with the President saying he opposed Democrats’ push for more funding for the Post Office because “that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting”.

As the hysteria grows – more than 100 protesters gathered outside the North Carolina home of postmaster general Louis DeJoy earlier this week – photos of mailboxes being locked or removed on flatbed trucks have flooded social media as supposed evidence of the scheme.

One hugely viral tweet posted by former basketball player Rex Chapman this week showing locked mailboxes was retweeted more than 25,000 times. “Burbank, California. In your entire life have you ever seen a LOCKED mailbox at the USPS?” he wrote. “Now you have. A disgrace and immediate threat to American democracy. Shame on them. Shame on the GOP.”

Burbank, California:

In your entire life have you ever seen a LOCKED mailbox at the USPS?

Now you have.

A disgrace and immediate threat to American democracy. Shame on them. Shame on the GOP.

Where are you @senatemajldr ? pic.twitter.com/YcbVUTnv37

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) August 17, 2020

The tweet was quickly debunked, with a 2016 news article explaining mailboxes had been locked in the same fashion after a series of “fishing” thefts. “We do this where we have had incidents, or there is a problem where the box may be out in a not very well lit public place,” a spokesman said at the time. “The boxes have been retrofitted all over Southern California.”

Another social media user also chimed in. “This is my post office,” she wrote. “These mailboxes are open on the other side, you just have to get out of your car to mail them. It’s been this way for months. This isn’t part of the purge.”

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I just drove there. There was a guy taking photos because he saw the inaccurate post on Twitter. I showed him that there were slots on the other side (I have no idea why I called them holes like english was my 13th language). pic.twitter.com/oM8pnQKHRj

— haunted dog (@zandywithaz) August 17, 2020

In another massively viral tweet, activist Thomas Kennedy posted a Reuters photo of mailboxes stacked in an industrial yard. “Photo taken in Wisconsin,” he wrote. “This is happening right before our eyes. They are sabotaging USPS to sabotage vote by mail. This is massive voter suppression and part of their plan to steal the election.”

Photo taken in Wisconsin. This is happening right before our eyes. They are sabotaging USPS to sabotage vote by mail. This is massive voter suppression and part of their plan to steal the election. pic.twitter.com/QXLWGIHTrz

— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) August 15, 2020

But in a lengthy thread, photojournalist Gary He explained that the photo was taken at Hartford Finishing Inc., a company which powder coats and refurbishes old mailboxes. “They have been there for years,” he said.

He accused Reuters of being deliberately misleading by sending a photographer to take pictures but posting them to its wire service labelling the site as just as an “industrial lot”. “To find this location on Google, you have to search for ‘Hartford Finishing’,” he wrote.

This is where I have to give some tough love to my friends at @reuterspictures. They sent a staff photog to these mailboxes. And then posted them to the wire labeling the site of the mailboxes as just an "industrial lot" when context is our entire job as journalists. (3/8) pic.twitter.com/FFTPODFXFR

— Gary He (@garyhe) August 17, 2020

“It’s a side road, not like you can spot the mailboxes from a highway. The sign for the business is 20 feet away from the mailboxes. To omit all this from the caption is journalistic malpractice.” He added that “telling the full story and context is everything”. “This is an intentional omission,” he said.

“Especially since Reuters is a wire service, other news (organisations) are going to use these pictures as evidence of Trump tampering with the USPS. When it’s later revealed that it was just a place where mailboxes get refurbished, trust in news organisations is further eroded.”

A Reuters spokesperson told National Review that the initial captions only “provided brief details” and had now been updated. The captions now state that the boxes are stacked at a “sandblasting and painting company”, but adds “people who live nearby said the pile had grown noticeably larger in recent weeks”.

A fact check by USA Today noted that a Google Street View image from August 2019 shows stacks of mailboxes far larger than the ones in the viral photos. “The photo in question is of a vendor we have done business with for several years,” a USPS spokesperson said. “They are a contractor that repairs or destroys old collection boxes. They now make new collection boxes also. Photos such as this appear every couple of years.”

While the USPS says it routinely reviews and removes underused mailboxes as mail volumes continued to decline, it announced last week that it would suspend all removals for 90 days “given the recent customer concerns”.