- In a U.S. Senate hearing, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and several GOP senators publicly clashed with President Trump in approving post-vote as safe and secure.
- DeJoy immediately refuted Trump’s argument that the Postal Service was not financially equipped to process many ballots, noting that votes would make up a small fraction of its total volume.
- DeJoy said he had been voting by mail for years, stating, “The American public would be able to vote by mail and the Postal Service will support it.”
- Republican senators, including sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Senator Rick Scott of Florida, and Senator Mitt Romney of Utah all praised the capacity of the Postal Service and vote in the mail in their states.
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In a hearing before the U.S. Senate on Friday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy publicly broke with President Donald Trump in approving post-vote as safe, stating that the U.S. Postal Service has the capacity to process ballot papers.
“I want to assure this committee that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering election mail safely and on time,” DeJoy said in his opening statement. “That sacred duty is my number one priority between now and election day.”
DeJoy too directly debunked Trump’s candidacy that the Postal Service does not have the money or resources to process e-mail messages.
“We deliver more than 230 million jobs a day,” DeJoy said. “That 150 million, 160 million ballots in a week is a very small amount, we have enough capacity. Mail volume is, as you said, 13%, 14% this year. Plus, as I identified earlier this week “We’ll have extra resources on standby. So if everyone completes the email process we identified, there will be no problem at all.”
During the hearing, DeJoy – who had previously been in lockstep with the president – deviated substantially from the posting of Trump and his allies on the issue of voting by mail.
In the last several months, Trump has taken pains to spread false and exaggerated claims that voting by post is inherently fraudulent and overwhelmingly benefits Democrats. In fact, rates of postal ballot fraud, although higher than personal vote fraud rates, are extremely low, and there is no credible evidence that extending postal voting rights hurts more than one of the two political parties.
In an interview Thursday morning with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump suggested that he reject emergency funds for the post office over his opposition to post-voting in a possible subsequent COVID-19 relief bill before returning his remarks later.
“They want $ 25 billion – billion – for the post office. Now they need that money to run the post office so it can take all those millions and millions of votes,” Trump told Bartiromo, referring to a proposal to bailout Democrats. “Well, in the meantime, they do not get there. In fact, those are just two items. But if they do not get those two items, that means you can not have a universal post-in-vote.”
In recent weeks, some Democrats have accused DeJoy – a GOP donor and logistics executive who never worked in the Postal Service before becoming postmaster general in May – of collaborating with Trump to sabotage and undermine the election. Some lawmakers have raised concerns about new cost-cutting measures, including limiting overtime and late travel for mail carriers. And despite DeJoy’s guarantees, recent postal delays in some areas have raised alarms that some polls may be too late to count.
A USPS worker unloads packages in Manhattan during coronavirus outbreak.
Reuters
Several GOP senators, including Rob Portman of Ohio, Rick Scott of Florida, and Mitt Romney of Utah, took the opportunity during the hearing to express their support for voting by mail. In an exchange, both Portman and DeJoy confirmed that they had personally voted by mail for years.
“I will be voting by post this year, and I have been voting by post for a number of years. The Postal Service will deliver every vote and process every vote in the time it gets,” DeJoy said. DeJoy is from North Carolina, allowing anyone to vote by mail without an apology.
“So, you support voting by mail?” Portman asked further.
“I think the American public should be able to vote by mail, and the Postal Service will support it. So I think that is yes,” DeJoy said.
“In Ohio, we’ve had absentee votes for a few decades, no-fault, which means you do not have to give a reason, and it works pretty well. I vote absent every year because I do not know where I am. will be, “Portman said, emphasizing that Ohio makes it” easy to vote and it’s hard to cheat. ”
Later in the hearing, Senator Scott praised the long-established postal apology system for postal excuses, saying, “I think the Florida Post Office has done a tremendous job of making sure it works – I have three elections. and in each they have worked hard to make it happen. ”
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the Republican senator most critical of Trump, highlighted Utah’s mail-in-the-vote process, saying, “the postal workers have made our vote through Utah’s postal system a reliable and highly successful system. ” Utah now conducts its elections almost entirely by mail, sending a vote to every registered voter.
“Do you have a high degree of confidence that virtually all votes have been sent, mailed, let’s say seven days before the election could actually be received and counted?” Romney asked DeJoy. “If people vote within seven days of the election, are you sure those votes will be received?”
“Extreme, very confident,” DeJoy responded to Romney. “We will track down every plant every night after Election Day. Very, very confident.”
DeJoy has publicly committed to allocate additional resources for processing ballot papers in the weeks leading up to election day.
“As of October 1, we will have redundant resources and aggressive efforts to ensure that everything moves and flows on time,” DeJoy said.
DeJoy added that the USPS has been in contact with election officials for more than 50,000 points since February in an attempt to plan for the election. He said the agency was planning a major public relations and voter education campaign, including letters and video announcements for public services, to reassure Americans that their votes would be counted.
“Indeed, I think in September we will be sending a letter to every American with what our process is, going out to every American citizen,” he said.
Following the hearing, the Postal Service announced the launch of a new polling station website that provides information and guidance to domestic voters, overseas and military voters, and election officials.
