- President Donald Trump told Fox Business on Thursday morning that he would block additional funding and election assistance for the U.S. Postal Service to sabotage post-a-vote.
- On Wednesday and Thursday, Trump said he would not sign off on one relief bill that includes federal funds needed for the USPS and more money to process election-related mail.
- “They want $ 25 billion. Now they need that money to run the post office so it can take all those millions and millions of votes,” Trump said on Thursday, adding, “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can not have universal post-in-vote. “
- Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the cash-strapped USPS has implemented austerity measures that experts say could damage the delivery of election mail.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
President Donald Trump told Fox Bart ‘Maria Bartiromo on Thursday morning that he would block additional funding and election assistance for the U.S. Postal Service to sabotage post-vote.
Throughout the pandemic, Trump has refused to provide emergency funds as subsidies to the cash-strapped USPS, which has seen a huge revenue shortfall. He has also aggressively spread false and exaggerated claims that voting by mail is inherently fraudulent. In fact, fraud rates are extremely low, and extending the right to vote by post does not cut or benefit either political party.
Trump said at a news conference on Wednesday night that he would not write off both the $ 25 billion in emergency funds for the USPS and the $ 3.5 billion subsidy to help process election reports that Democrats have pleaded guilty to. a federal COVID-19 relief bill.
He said the same thing during the Fox Business interview on Thursday morning.
“They want $ 25 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 said. “Well, in the meantime, they do not get there. But if they do not get those two items, that means you can not have a universal post-in-vote … because they are not provided.”
—The Recount (@therecount) August 13, 2020
Trump has opposed measures to help the Postal Service. He said he would refuse to sign the Cares Act incentive package in March if it included a bailout for the agency, The Washington Post reported on April 11.
“We told her very clearly that the president would not sign the bill if [money for the Postal Service] sat in it, “an administration official told The Post.” I do not know if we used the v-bomb, but the president was not signing it, and we told her that. “
The Post reported that although Congress initially intended to give the Postal Service a $ 13 billion subsidy, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin stepped in to block the measure, telling lawmakers, “You can have a loan, or you can have nothing at all. “
Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina shipping and logistics executor and a prolific Republican donor with no experience in the postal service, the USPS has implemented cost-saving measures, including limiting overtime for mail carriers, on late trips to deliver mail , and freezing here. Critics have said the measures delayed postal delivery in some areas and could prevent voters from being delivered on time for the November elections.
The reasoning behind Trump’s opposition to more USPS funding is flawed. The United States does not have a “universal post-in-vote.” Prior to the pandemic, five states returned all registered voters a vote by mail that could be returned by e-mail or put in a ballot box. Washington and Oregon have been doing this for decades.
Four more states – Nevada, Montana, California, and Vermont – and Washington, DC, have said they will all, like most registered voters, cast a ballot, while also scaling individuals to vote in the November election.
Ten more states plan to email all of the most active registered voters a voting application, The Post reported.
And while the USPS policy changes in some areas appear to be delaying timely mail delivery, experts have disputed Trump’s claim that the Postal Service cannot process an additional load of ballot papers.
Amber McReynolds, former director of the Denver Elections Division and CEO of the National Vote At Home Institute, told Insider in April that if US is well funded, the USPS is a remarkably effective tool for administering mail-in elections.
“They have the ability with their equipment and everything to run it at a level we would never expect – it’s massive,” McReynolds said. When put in perspective, she said, the number of voices the Postal Service processes is just a blip on the radar.
“The Postal Services estimate that they process about 140 billion mails a year. And when we talk about 250 million e-mails for, say, every American, that’s only about 0.2% of their normal volume,” she said.
If you plan to vote by mail this November, experts advise asking for your ballot as soon as possible and returning it by email at least a week in advance, or delivering it to your local polling station or a ballot box if it is an option in your state.
Read more:
How can you vote by mail in your state in the November presidential election?
Why you should apply for your November ballot box as soon as possible, and when you can expect to receive it
Vote 2020: See the deadlines to apply for and submit your mail-in vote in any U.S. state
