Congressmen on Sunday demanded that the postmaster general and chairman of the U.S. Postal Service testify before Congress later this month about recent “sweeping and dangerous operational changes” at the agency that they claimed the post was “delayed” and “integrity” jeopardizes 2020 election.
Requirements of Second Chamber Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate First Chamber Member, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., House Speaker Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., and Senator Gary Peters, D- Mich., The top Democrat on the Senate and State Department’s First Security Committee, are just the latest escalation of the post-in vote between Democrats and President Trump and Republicans.
Trump and the Republican Party have been warning for months about possible fraud linked to voting via mail. The RNC and the Trump campaign have filed lawsuits to retaliate against Democrats’ efforts to restore voting laws in response to the pandemic; this, while Democrats say cases of actual voter fraud are limited and argue that Republicans are trying to suppress voter turnout to improve their chances of winning elections.
TRUMP SET DEMOCRATS ‘MAIL-IN BALLOT PUSH HOLD UP CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS PACK
“The president has explicitly stated his intention to manipulate the Postal Service to be eligible for voters’ access to the ballot in the run-up to his own election,” the Democrats wrote in a joint statement Sunday.
Democrats acknowledged that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is a “Trump mega-donor” and “acted as an accomplice in the presidential campaign to merge in the election” by launching “sweeping new operational changes that lower delivery standards and post delays. “
USPS warns 46 STATES CANNOT GUARANTEE MAIL-IN BALLOTS CAN HAPPEN TIMELY FROM THE FALL
Earlier this week, the USPS warned 46 states and the District of Columbia that it could not guarantee that all e-mailed ballots would arrive on time to count in the November election.
“This is a serious threat to the integrity of the election and to our entire democracy,” she wrote, referring to the USPS warning, noting that even if voters meet every deadline and their state’s election procedures follow, their vote may not be counted.
“As Democrats from the House and Senate continue to respond to tackle the postal service’s sabotage, Republicans from the House and Senate are missing out on action.”
Democrats went on to call on DeJoy and USPS Board of Governors Robert Duncan to testify during an “urgent hearing” before Maloney’s commission on August 24.
“The hearing will examine the sweeping operational and organizational changes at the Postal Service that experts warn could degrade delivery standards, delay the mail and potentially the rights of eligible Americans to vote by mail in the upcoming November election,” he said. she wrote. “The Postmaster General and top post leadership must answer to Congress and the American people why they are pushing this dangerous new policy, which threatens to silence the votes of millions, months before the election.”
Meanwhile, during a news conference on Sunday, Schumer shrugged off DeJoy, saying he had a “public shameful attitude.”
However, Schumer said he would introduce legislation this week that requires all election items to be treated as first-class mail by the USPS.
“I will write legislation, introduce legislation,” Schumer said, noting that it would “say that all election mail is treated as first class, should be treated as first class by the post office.”
Pelosi said she could return the House of Representatives from the August recession to vote on similar legislation, and Schumer said on Sunday that he “will demand that leader McConnell bring the Senate back to vote on it as well.”
“We can not ignore this problem, stay home and say we have no problem, as he has done in the past,” Schumer said.
TRUMP WARNINGS OF MAIL-IN VOTE ‘DISASTER’
Democrats have asked for $ 25 billion, including $ 3.5 billion in election resources, to strengthen the Postal Service in time for the election to be included in the fourth coronavirus stimulus package. Trump has said the money from the Postal Service will not come unless Democrats come to the negotiating table on coronavirus relief and give concessions to Republicans.
“Sure, if they give us what we want,” the post office president said during a news conference Friday. “And it’s not what I want, it’s what the American people want.”
Trump said on Thursday that voting via email would not be possible without the funding.
“It’s her fault,” Trump told FOX Business ” Mornings with Maria. “They want $ 3.5 billion for something that is fraudulent … for the post-vote, universal post-vote. They want $ 25 billion for the post office. They need that money so it can work and they can take those millions and millions of ballots. ”
The president said voice-by-post is conditional on funding.
“But if they don’t get those two items, then they can’t have email voting,” he said.
The president went on to abolish the vote by post. He said polls were “sent to dogs” and “dead people,” citing states like Virginia, where he said more than “500,000 false ballots were sent to voters,” and in New York, where voting by mail in a week caused -long delay in announcing results for some races in the primary state.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign said that casting by post is the “safest form of voting” in the midst of the novel coronavirus.
FAUCI SAYS: THERE ARE ‘NO REASON’ AMERICANS CAN ONLY VOTE IN PERSON IN NOVEMBER
But earlier this week, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Dr. Anthony Fauci that “there is no reason” Americans can not vote personally for the 2020 presidential election, as long as voters follow good social distancing guidelines amid the pandemic of coronavirus.
“I think if done carefully, according to the guidelines, there’s no reason I can see why that may not be the case,” Fauci told ABC News this week. ‘If you wear a mask, if you observe the physical distance and do not have a full situation, then there is no reason why [people] would not be able to do that. ”
Fauci added that individuals who are “physically or otherwise compromised” and who are not interested in physically going to the polls after election day can use e-mail voting.
But Fauci doubled down, saying, “There’s no reason why we can not vote personally as otherwise.”
