A Gypsum resident is getting a post office box, after the U.S. Postal Service apologized for refusing to accept a Mexican voter card as proof of identity.
The American Civil Liberties Union had intervened on Griselda Duarte’s behalf after she was denied a renewal on her postal box rental earlier this year. Duarte had gone to the post office and been turned down because she did not have what a postal clerk thought was proper identification.
Duarte had the two photo IDs required for postal box rental but one was a visa issued by the U.S. government allowing her to be in the country legally and the other was an ID issued by the Mexican Federal Election Institute. In past years, Duarte had been able to rent a box using only the Mexican voter document.
What happened next was a “miscommunication” and was not a case of discrimination, according to U.S. Postal Service spokesman Al DeSarro who pointed out that the Postal Service has ID requirements to avoid fraud.
The clerk reportedly told Duarte she needed some form of local ID. The clerk, who spoke Spanish with Duarte, told postal officials that he informed Duarte he would need to check to see if her other IDs would suffice.
“He found out it would be okay but she never came back,” DeSarro said.
The matter festered and blew up into a complaint after the ACLU sent the Gypsum Post Office a letter complaining about the incident. The letter was forwarded to the Postal Service’s national legal department and no action was taken there.
While the complaint letter languished, the ACLU had an intern with a British accent call the Gypsum Post Office and ask if she could rent a box using her visa for ID. The ACLU said she was told she could. DeSarro said the clerk told the intern he would check.
The Postal Service contacted the ACLU Thursday to say that Duarte would get her postal box – an important thing in a town where there is no residential delivery.
“We do apologize for any inconvenience,” DeSarro said. “We will make sure she gets a P.O. box.”
Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com
