The United States Postal Service mailbox with its signature blue and white logo, an inseparable fixture of the urban and rural American landscape, has emerged as the unlikely superstar of the 2020 US election.

Mail in ballots have shattered records for early voting, nudged the contest towards knife edge, angered a sitting US president, launched 300 lawsuits and offered citizens the comfort of an alternative method to vote during a raging pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 Americans and sickened more than 9 million in the homeland.