The blue mailboxes have returned. The United States Postal Service has begun reinstalling the blue boxes for mail collection that had been removed from the Downtown Columbus area in early summer. The reinstallation began on Thursday, August 20, 2020.
“We’ll be putting back about 47 of them around downtown over the next couple of days,” said a postal worker who was installing the bins at Gay Street and Pearl Street on Thursday afternoon.
The blue mailboxes were removed in late May and early June as a precautionary safety measure in response to the protests.
In a response to Columbus Underground on July 10, 2020, Naddia Dhalai, Strategic Communication Specialist for the USPS said “We do plan on returning them when it is safe to do so.”
With the bins being placed back in their locations Downtown, it appears that the USPS has deemed it safe for the blue mailboxes to return.
A photo by Columbus Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner of blue collection boxes being removed from Downtown (from May 29, 2020) made the rounds on social media over the weekend. Although the photo was taken out of context and shared many times without a timestamp, it spurred concerns of tampering with voting in Columbus.
However, those that wish to vote absentee for the upcoming 2020 election can find information on how to request an absentee ballot at sos.state.oh.us.